Top Taiwanese athlete Chun-Han “Hank” Yang is spending the month training at ETSU’s U.S. Olympic Training Site.
Just this summer, Yang broke two 100-meter records in one day-breaking his own record the second time and gaining a new personal best of 10.11 in that race. Yang won the gold medal for the 100-meter sprint at the World Universidad Games in 2017, and more recently, a silver medal for the 200-meter sprint at the 2018 Asian Games. He is a hopeful for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Yang is being personally trained by Dr. Brad Deweese and Dr. Kimitake “Kimi” Sato, who are both a part of the Department of Sport, Exercise, Recreation and Kinesiology faculty at ETSU.
While Yang is the first Taiwanese athlete to train at ETSU, he is not the first Olympic-hopeful athlete to train here.
According to ETSU’s Olympic Training Site website, the training site has had many Olympic athletes train here. For Kayak and Canoe, they’ve seen three-time Olympian Casey Eichfeld, 2008 Olympian Richard Powell, 2016 Olympian Michal Smolen, along with many national team members. USA Bobsled and Skeleton notable trainee’s at ETSU include; 2018 Olympian Chris Kinney, three-time Olympian and two-time bronze medalist) Steve Langton, 2014 Olympian Johnny Quinn, 2018 Olympian Hakeem Saboor, and many more. Skeleton trainee, three-time Olympian John Daly and Luge trainee, three-time Olympian Chris Mazdzer, who won the silver in 2018. The training site also has regular visiting international athletes, like Yang.
Deweese has overseen many world-class athletes in their physical preparation. According to ETSU, his team, collectively, have won six world championships, 12 national championships and 100 medals in international bobsled, skeleton, track and field, karate, canoe/kayak, luge and freestyle ski competitions.
Along with being a professor at ETSU, Deweese is currently the strength and conditioning coach for USA’s Canoe/Kayak National Slalom team.
Sato, who is also taking part in Yang’s training, has previously spent some time in Colorado Springs at the U.S. Olympic Training Center.
During his time at ETSU, Yang will be taking part in lab testing, strength and conditioning training and track workouts. Hopes are high for Taiwan’s top athlete.
