Yang Chuan-Kwang
Yang Chuan-Kwang (born July 10, 1933 in Taitung on Taiwan , † January 28, 2007 in Los Angeles ) was a Taiwanese athlete who was successful as a decathlete from 1954 to 1964 . He participated in three Olympic Games and won a silver medal.
The son of a farmer was a US scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). His friend and training partner was Rafer Johnson . He was 1.85 m tall and had a competition weight of 82 kg.
Career
His first success was in 1954, when he was Asian champion with 5454 points. In the high jump he mastered an impressive 2.02 m. At his first Olympic appearance at the XVI. At the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne he crossed 3.30 m with the stick and landed in 8th place with a total of 6521 points. In 1958 he was second in the US championships with 7625 points and a year later with 7835 points even a winner, albeit in Rafer Johnson's absence .
On July 9, 1960, he achieved his personal best with 8426 points. His slip in the high jump, where he only managed 1.67 m, he was able to compensate for with an excellent 7.75 m in the long jump. His score would have been a world record if Rafer Johnson hadn't been even better on the same day with 8683 points. So one waited with excitement for the duel between the two world-class athletes at the XVII. 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome . The external conditions were unfavorable: 32 ° C, high humidity and the Scirocco did not allow for top performances, especially since the 400 m run could not take place until 10.30 p.m. after a longer interruption of the competitions due to thunderstorms. After nine exercises, Yang was 76 points behind Johnson. To overtake him, he would have had to be ten seconds faster in the final 1500 m run. However, he could only make up 18 points and was narrowly beaten second. Both were also students at UCLA and were both supervised by local trainer Elvin C. Drake .
Three years later, on April 28, 1963 in Walnut , his big hour struck: Yang set a new world record with 9,121 points - in the pole vault he had achieved 4.84 m. However, this high was followed by a deep fall: After the new rating introduced in 1964, Yang's performance was suddenly only worth 8089 points. From then on, Yang no longer had the opportunity to compensate for his weakness in throwing with his strength in the jumping disciplines. So he could at the XVIII. Olympic Summer Games in Tokyo in 1964 and was in the end in fifth place more than 100 points behind the winner of the bronze medal.
After the end of his career he worked as a trainer and made a total of four film appearances as an actor under the name CK Yang , including as a silent prisoner in the western Two Dirty Scoundrels (1970) alongside Kirk Douglas and Henry Fonda . He later converted to Christianity and became a priest.
Services
- 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne: Eighth with 6521 points (winner Milt Campbell's score : 7937)
- 1960 Olympic Games in Rome: Silver with 8334 points behind Rafer Johnson with 8392 points and ahead of Vasily Kuznetsov with 7809 points
- 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo: Fifth with 7650 points (winner Willi Holdorf's score : 7887)
- Won the AAU championship in 1959 (7549 points), 1962 (8249 points) and 1964 (8641 points)
- Winner at the Asian Games in 1954 (5454 points) and 1958 (7101 points)
- World record with 9,121 points on April 28, 1963 in Walnut
Web links
- Yang Chuan-Kwang in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
- Yang Chuan-Kwang in the Internet Movie Database (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Yang Chuan-Kwang |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Taiwanese decathlete |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 10, 1933 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Taitung , Taiwan |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 28, 2007 |
| Place of death | los Angeles |