FEATURE/Documentary tells 'forgotten' story of Taiwan's 1st Olympic medalist

By Sunny Lai and Chao Yen-hsiang, CNA staff reporter and writer

Several Taiwanese athletes became household names at this year's Paris Olympics, most prominently among them Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷), who overcame controversy to win Taiwan's first-ever Olympic gold in boxing.

Yet while Lin and repeat badminton men's doubles gold medalists Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and Lee Yang (李洋) etched their names into the public's consciousness, the memory of Taiwan's first Olympic medalist and arguably greatest Olympian, Yang Chuan-kwang (楊傳廣), has faded.

"It's really sad that he's kind of been forgotten in his own country," former CNN Senior Asia Correspondent Mike Chinoy told CNA in a recent interview, expressing one of his main motivations in producing the documentary "Decathlon: The CK Yang & Rafer Johnson Story."

Yang, known as the "Iron Man of Asia," won silver in the decathlon at the 1960 Rome Olympics in a storied battle against lifelong friend and rival Rafer Johnson of the United States, who took gold by a meager 58 points.

"Even today, it is still considered one of the great moments in the history of the Olympic Games," said Chinoy, who described it as "unfortunate" that Johnson has received far more recognition in the U.S. than Yang has in Taiwan, something he hoped to "balance out."

A 'forgotten' story

Yang, an Indigenous Amis, and Johnson, a Black American, faced off in an epic showdown in Rome, with the gold medal decided by a matter of seconds in the final event, the 1500-meter run.

"On the one hand, they were battling to become the world's greatest athlete. On the other hand, they were best friends," Chinoy said.

Despite coming from opposite sides of the world and completely different backgrounds, Yang and Johnson were from minority groups in their own countries and reached bigger stages through their athletic achievements, Chinoy said.

The 72-year-old journalist was amazed by how much the two athletes' stories had in common, and their bond was sealed when they trained together at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), starting in 1958 under the same coach, Elvin "Ducky" Drake.

Deeply moved by their pure friendship that transcended race and nationality, Chinoy, along with former Asian Wall Street Journal correspondent John Krich, initiated the production of the documentary in 2019, collaborating with Golden Horse Award-nominated director Frank W. Chen (陳惟揚).

Yang-Johnson bond

Chinoy and Krich narrate the story of the two sportsmen, from Yang's rise to fame to his time training alongside Johnson in the U.S., interspersed between an event-by-event recap of their intense battle at the Rome Games.

The film also delves into key moments in their friendship, such as Yang attending Johnson's wedding in 1971, their final meeting at a hospital shortly before Yang died from a stroke in January 2007, and Johnson delivering a eulogy at Yang's funeral.

In addition, it highlights major parts of their post-athletic lives, including the banning of the Taiwanese team led by Yang from the 1976 Montreal Olympics due to pressure from China, Johnson becoming the first African American athlete to light the Olympic cauldron at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, and Yang engaging in politics in the 1980s.

An iconic photo

In the documentary, Chinoy describes the photo of Yang and Johnson leaning on each other after the grueling 1500m run in the Rome decathlon as "one of the greatest sports photos ever."

It captured the moment the two collapsed into each other's arms as friends, right after pushing themselves to their absolute limits as rivals, he said.

"If you were to put together a book of the 50 greatest sports photos, it would be in there," Chinoy said. "It showed the quality, the combination of intense competition and very intense friendship."

Asked what question he would have posed to Yang and Johnson had he been in Rome in 1960, the experienced journalist answered: "How do each of you feel about the other?"

The question journalists always ask athletes after a race is, "How do you feel?" Chinoy said, but the friendship between Yang and Johnson was so special that he would have been more intrigued by their thoughts on each other.

The production

Aside from interviews with people close to both decathletes, the 45-minute film -- available on the TaiwanPlus Docs YouTube channel since late July -- includes never-before-seen footage, such as Krich's 2006 interview with Yang and home movies provided by Johnson's family.

Chinoy, who moved to Taiwan in 2022 primarily to tell Yang and Johnson's story, said "Decathlon" is the most polished and "perhaps the most emotionally powerful documentary film that I've ever been associated with."

He attributed part of his satisfaction with the outcome to the use of animation, which offered an alternative that allowed them to illustrate key moments in the duo's lives where no video existed or where archival footage was costly and difficult to obtain, he said.

To be remembered

Chinoy and Krich occasionally appear in the film, including on a visit to the National Sports Training Center in Kaohsiung, where Yang's memorabilia are displayed collecting dust in a largely ignored room.

The film crew also traveled to Yang's "Iron Man House" in Taitung County, which now stands abandoned and in disrepair.

Chinoy believed that the passage of time, changes in Taiwan's political landscape, and Yang's extended stays in the U.S. were likely factors contributing to his gradual fading from Taiwan's collective memory.

But he felt strongly that the story of Yang and Johnson's friendship remained relevant to today's society and that Yang's athletic legacy occupied an indelible position in Taiwan's sports history.

"If you go forward 64 years and look at the headlines, what's in the news? Taiwan-China tensions, Black Lives Matter," he said, noting that the issues that shaped the two athletes' lives six decades ago still existed and gave the film a contemporary quality.

While Johnson's legacy is well preserved in the U.S. -- the track at UCLA's track and field stadium is named after him, for example -- Yang deserved greater recognition in Taiwan, Chinoy argued, suggesting that creating a museum dedicated to the legendary athlete could be a meaningful way to honor him.

"He deserves to be remembered because he was the first person from Taiwan to win an Olympic medal," Chinoy said. "He was a symbol of Taiwan in its battle for greater acceptance, greater legitimacy, greater international space."

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