Pod Insights If You're Listening Was Taiwan's Olympic champion sabotaged? About this episode To this day, international recognition of Taiwan is a fraught issue - with only a handful of countries affirming their claim of statehood.
Today, Matt's producer Adair tells him the strange saga of Taiwan's Olympic ambitions, including the tale of a Taiwanese man once called the greatest athlete in the world, and the potential plot to take him down.
Follow If You're Listening on the ABC Listen app https://radio.abc.net.au/help/apps.
Check out our series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDTPrMoGHssAfgMMS3L5LpLNFMNp1U_Nq
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 ABC Listen, podcasts, radio, news, music and more.
0:06 Speaker 01 Don't have enough time to stay across all the latest news?
0:11 Speaker 01 ABC News Top Stories podcast explains the biggest breaking news stories and why they matter in less than two minutes. So you can hit play and get updated while brushing your teeth or making your lunch. And it's always up to date, ready whenever you're ready to get across the day's news. Just search ABC News Top Stories podcast on ABC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts.
0:36 Speaker 02 This podcast was produced on the lands of the Uwabikal and Gadigal people.
0:46 Speaker 02 G'day, Matt Bevan here, this is If You're Listening. We've spent the last few weeks looking into Taiwan. In last week's episode, we told the story of the Kuomintang, the once-exiled nationalist government of China that's now the main opposition party in Taiwan, and how they went from sworn enemies of the Chinese Communist Party to something kind of ally-shaped, almost. This week, we're looking at Taiwan's unique, modern political history, fistfights and all, and what it actually takes to build a strong and healthy democracy. But one thing we haven't touched on much are the implications of Taiwan's strange half-country status.
1:28 Speaker 02 Because Taiwan functions as a state in nearly every way that actually matters. It has its own government and its own elections, its own military, its own currency and passports. One of the only ways it's not like other countries is how it's recognised outside of Taiwan, like at the UN, where just 12 member states think it's a country, mostly tiny island nations, plus oddly the Vatican. It also makes things weird when it comes to sport. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, three teams had their flag banned. Russia and Belarus over the invasion of Ukraine and Taiwan. My producer, Adair Shepherd, has been helping with the research for these episodes.
2:09 Speaker 02 She's here to tell me how Taiwan's tangled Olympic history came about. A story which I'm told involves all the best elements of a great sports story. Fierce rivalry, an unlikely friendship, and a dash of Cold War espionage. Fantastic. Very excited about this. Hello, Adair.
2:35 Speaker 03 Hello. I've become like the sports correspondent for If You're Listening.
2:38 Speaker 02 Yes, I know. Yes, you were talking about North Korea's women's football team in an episode recently.
2:43 Speaker 03 Yeah, next week, China's ping pong team.
2:45 Speaker 02 Yes. Okay, where do you want to start this story?
2:48 Speaker 03 So Taiwanese people face a lot of these weird quirks of being this half-recognized country. Because, like you said, it functions like a country, but there's just a lot of people who it's in their best interest to deny that it is a country to appease China. I just wanted to start, before we get into the Olympics, with one of my favorite examples of this. It's from a Hong Kong outlet and they're talking with a WHO doctor.
3:12 Speaker 02 I just love that the video is titled WHO Dr. Bruce Aylwood. And I read that as Doctor Who.
3:19 Speaker 03 Yeah.
3:21 Speaker 02 So I was like, oh, that wasn't what I was expecting at all. But okay, it's about the WHO, not Doctor Who. Okay, I'm with you. Yeah, okay, let's go.
3:30 Speaker 04 Would the WHO consider Taiwan's membership?
3:40 Speaker 04 Hello?
3:43 Speaker 05 I couldn't hear your question.
3:44 Speaker 04 Okay, yeah, let me repeat the question.
3:47 Speaker 05 No, that's okay. Let's move to another one then.
3:49 Speaker 04 Right, because I'm actually curious on talking about Taiwan as well, on Taiwan's case.
3:58 Speaker 02 Oh man, that is, oh, that feels just so horrible to watch that.
4:02 Speaker 03 I know.
4:03 Speaker 02 It's so weird. He's refusing to answer any questions.
4:06 Speaker 03 In the most awkward way possible, by pretending to be frozen and then pretending his thing dropped out.
4:11 Speaker 02 So people get into awkward situations where they can't recognise Taiwan, even in a health discussion. Go on.
4:18 Speaker 03 Another way that this comes up is in sport, and specifically I want to talk about the Olympics. It says a lot about the way that Taiwan is viewed by the world, and I think it's an interesting lens to look at its history.
4:28 Speaker 02 Yeah.
4:28 Speaker 03 As you said, today Taiwan's flag is banned at the Olympics. Do you know anything else about how they compete at the Olympics?
4:36 Speaker 02 Well, they're not called Taiwan. I think they're called, are they called Chinese Taipei?
4:41 Speaker 03 Yes, that's right.
4:42 Speaker 02 What a strange decision on what to call them that.
4:45 Speaker 03 They also can't play their anthem. Their anthem is called the anthem of Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee. They can't play their actual anthem.
4:54 Speaker 03 Even in Australia, even only this year at the Asia Cup, there was a man who was ejected by security for cheering and saying Taiwan at Western Sydney Stadium. Like a week later, on the Gold Coast, a bunch of people's clothes that had Taiwan on them were taken off them.
5:10 Speaker 02 Ew, why are we doing that? That is just, I suppose that's just FIFA and the IOC rather than the Australian government doing that, but.
5:15 Speaker 03 But yeah, it's the security guards at these stadiums that are having to enforce these rules. And fans do have fun, creative ways to get around it. They often use bubble tea on signs and then they'll like spell out Taiwan with like food and use different things. So I just wanted to go through a brief history of how we got here.
5:34 Speaker 02 Okay.
5:35 Speaker 03 For like two decades, the team marched under a different name almost every Olympics. So Japan, Fomosa, Fomosa China, Taiwan, Republic of China, and then now Chinese Taipei. In 1932 and 1936, their first two Olympics, Taiwanese athletes competed for Japan.
5:52 Speaker 02 Oh, yes.
5:53 Speaker 03 In the 1936 Berlin Olympics, a Taiwanese-born composer won an award because they used to have music at the Olympics.
6:02 Speaker 02 My favourite is that people were awarded Olympic medals for town planning.
6:06 Speaker 03 Oh my god.
6:07 Speaker 02 And for uh medal design and architecture.
6:11 Speaker 03 The nineteen forty eight in London, that was the only time China and Taiwan competed as one team because the ROC was.
6:18 Speaker 02 The Republic of China. So this was, this was in the period of time when China was a single country, although in the midst of a massive civil war and Chiang Kai-shek had the country all together into one unit for, for like two and a half years.
6:34 Speaker 03 And so that's the only time they ever competed together as China.
6:37 Speaker 02 Yes.
6:38 Speaker 03 And then the next Olympics in Helsinki, that was the first time the People's Republic of China appeared.
6:44 Speaker 02 Wow.
6:44 Speaker 03 Not for very long.
6:45 Speaker 02 Oh, right.
6:45 Speaker 03 And then Chiang Kai-shek was pretty annoyed and so Taiwan or the Republic of China didn't participate. And then in Melbourne in nineteen fifty six, the reverse happened and the Republic of China competed as famosa China. And the PRC didn't want to have two countries with two Chinese committees, so they boycotted.
7:06 Speaker 02 Okay.
7:06 Speaker 03 Now, this is where I'm going to introduce the protagonist of my story.
7:12 Speaker 02 Okay, so you've sent me a magazine cover. It's from Sports Illustrated, which was owned by Henry Luce, the owner of Time Magazine, who we talked about extensively for his support of Chiang Kai-shek in our previous episode on Thursday. But this is an issue of Sports Illustrated, special issue, Sport in the Orient, World's Best Athlete, C K Yang.
7:34 Speaker 03 So C K Yang is often called the first person with a Chinese name to score points at the Olympics. Because it would make a lot of different people upset if they just called him Chinese. Actually, he's not even ethnically Han Chinese. He is indigenous Taiwanese.
7:48 Speaker 02 Right, interesting.
7:49 Speaker 03 The indigenous people of Taiwan spread out in like six thousand to fifteen thousand B C across Southeast Asia. So like Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Madagascar, the Philippines and Polynesian people. So like Maori, Samoan and native Hawaiians all trace their ancestors back to Taiwan.
8:08 Speaker 02 Oh, right. Okay.
8:09 Speaker 03 There's obviously different theories, but they definitely share a genetic link and a common ancestor and like their languages are very similar. So based on the title of this, what do you think the sport he's competing in is? Best athlete in the world?
8:22 Speaker 02 He looks like he's holding a javelin, so maybe he's competing in javelin? Or it could be like one of the multi-sport events that includes javelin, like the pentathlon or the decathlon or something like that?
8:33 Speaker 03 Yeah, it's the decathlon.
8:34 Speaker 02 Yeah, decathlon.
8:35 Speaker 03 And so often that's the competition where the winners are called the greatest athletes in the world.
8:41 Speaker 02 Yes, yes, yes.
8:42 Speaker 03 So in Melbourne, he didn't place, but he did meet someone who was very important, Rafer Johnson. So Rafer Johnson was like a rising star American athlete at the time. And then CK flew to UCLA and they trained together.
8:57 Speaker 06 The story of the decathlon is a story of friendship. One day at the university where the Texan Rafer Johnson was studying economics and sociology, a shy young man from Formosa was enrolled, Yang Chuan Kwan, who had come to study dentistry.
9:11 Speaker 03 They became fantastic friends. They called themselves the Two Man United Nations.
9:16 Speaker 02 Oh, sweet.
9:16 Speaker 03 They trained with a man called Elvin Drake, and people called him Dicky Drake. I have a little bit of audio of Dicky Drake talking about they're getting ready together for the Rome 1960 Olympics.
9:32 Speaker 07 We'd worked together all summer long, Rafer, CK and myself. We'd talked many times about what might happen in Rome. I had told them that if one boy made one mistake and the other made no mistakes, the one without a mistake would be a winner. And I also had told them, you may have me in a bad spot. I'm coaching both of you. We have two countries involved. And if it gets tight in Rome, I'm going to pull back into the stands and you're on your own. That we went to Rome with only one idea in mind, and that was to get first and second in the Olympic Games.
10:08 Speaker 02 Oh, that's sweet. Okay, so there were a pair.
10:11 Speaker 03 And so at the opening ceremony of the Rome Olympics, Johnson became the first black American to carry the US flag at an opening ceremony.
10:18 Speaker 02 Wow.
10:19 Speaker 03 Yeah, it was a big achievement. And then meanwhile, because the International Olympic Committee forced Taiwan. To march as famosa, this is what it looked like.
10:30 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah. I'm looking at people marching in the Olympics. The person who is in the flag bearer position is holding a sign that says under protest.
10:40 Speaker 03 Yes, this is the Taiwanese team that were not very happy. So let's get on to the decathlon.
10:45 Speaker 06 Johnson is 25, six feet two, weighs 198 pounds. He is perhaps the nearest approach to the ideal Olympic athlete. He has the slim legs of a sprinter, yet surprisingly powerful arms and chest. Yang is 27, five feet 11 and weighs 169 pounds. He's more agile than powerful. With 10.7 in the 100 metres, he leads on points. In the long jump, Johnson reaches 7 metres 35. With a leap of 7 metres 46, the Chinese increases his lead. Between events, Yang and Johnson are always together, but the edge of their sporting rivalry is becoming keen now. Yang puts the shot.
11:23 Speaker 02 That's a big yeet with the shot put.
11:25 Speaker 06 13 metres 33.
11:26 Speaker 02 Oh, wow. That's a bigger one from Raifa. Yep.
11:29 Speaker 06 Johnson, with a clear win of 15 metres 82, goes ahead on points. Rain drenches the field, but according to the rules, the other two events must be run off before midnight. Otherwise, all the first part becomes void. Johnson clears 1 metre 85, but here again in the high jump, Yang's agility tells. He reduces Johnson's lead to 75 points. For 400 metres, Yang is home, second ahead of Johnson.
11:57 Speaker 02 All right. So at the end of the first day, Yang is only 50 points behind.
12:01 Speaker 03 Yes, Yang has won four out of five of those events, but he's still 55 points behind. Because he, remember Dicky talking about how if either of them just had to make one mistake. Well, it looked impressive, but apparently that was a very bad shot put from CK. This is insanely close for the decathlon. On the second day, they start with hurdles. Yang started where he left off with a victory. And Johnson makes his first mistake. And so CK gets ahead. He is then in the lead by 138 points.
12:33 Speaker 02 Wow.
12:33 Speaker 03 Yeah, it really shows you that one event is changing the score every time.
12:37 Speaker 02 Yes, yes, yes.
12:38 Speaker 03 Then in the discus. But Johnson's strength in the discus once again destroyed Yang's hopes of taking the lead. Johnson is just very good at this, very dominant at this. And so he retakes the lead in discus. Then in pole vault, this is CK's strongest event by far. And so he takes back on the lead. Now Johnson's only in the lead by 15 points. Then javelin. And though Yang gained back some ground in the pole vault, Johnson's best javelin throw bettered Yang's. Again, Johnson takes back the lead, but he's only in the lead. The last event, the 1500 metres, he's only in the lead by 67 points. So it comes down to this 1500 metre race. And this is like insanely grueling. This is notorious for being one of the worst races that you can do because they've already done two days.
13:23 Speaker 06 The last race, the 1500, the most tiring trial for all competitors already near the end of their strength. Johnson, with his large and powerful muscles, is perhaps more tired than the supple Guoery Yang, but he hangs on close behind. Johnson slows up.
13:43 Speaker 06 Over the line, his infinite weariness finds some support on Yang's still resilient shoulders.
13:49 Speaker 02 Oh, Johnson has basically collapsed onto Yang to hold him up.
13:54 Speaker 03 Yeah, this is actually a really famous sporting photo. Uh, this is what Johnson wrote about that moment.
14:01 Speaker 02 We walked together for a while, leaning on each other, physically the way we had leaned on each other emotionally for the past two years. So great was my respect and admiration for him. I just wanted to be next to him at that moment. As good as I felt about winning, I felt equally bad that my friend had lost. Ah. So despite the fact that CK Yang beat Johnson in that 1500 metre race.
14:24 Speaker 03 Hmm.
14:25 Speaker 02 He obviously didn't beat him by enough to close the gap on points.
14:28 Speaker 03 He won seven out of 10 of the events, but he still, just because of the point system, he didn't win enough. He had to beat him by nine seconds and he only beat him by 1.2. So. Rafer retired after that decathlon.
14:43 Speaker 02 Mm hmm.
14:43 Speaker 03 And going into the Tokyo Olympics, it was CK's turn. Like, it was CK's turn to win gold. He didn't have Rafer.
14:52 Speaker 02 This is nineteen sixty four.
14:53 Speaker 03 This is nineteen sixty four. He didn't have Rafer competing against him. He was by far the clear favourite. The other thing is, they were so far ahead of everyone else. It was just those two. And in nineteen sixty three, he broke the world record. He was the first man ever to get over nine thousand points, which, yep, I guess is a lot of points.
15:11 Speaker 02 Yeah, it sounds like a lot of points. I mean, nine thousand, wow.
15:15 Speaker 03 And that's when he did that Sports Illustrated cover. And so, in nineteen sixty four, in Tokyo, Taiwan begrudgingly competes as Taiwan this time, and he's overwhelming favourite. But he finishes fifth, and he's devastated. Here he is talking about it for a documentary for Taiwan Plus, which is the English public broadcaster in Taiwan.
15:37 Speaker 06 Everybody was expecting me to win in nineteen sixty four. I got the bad, bad flu and then aching bone. And then even I went to a doctor and looked at my throat and said, oh, no, you don't have a flu. But I said, my bone is aching. And then I couldn't even stand straight.
15:58 Speaker 02 Ah, the old aching bone.
15:59 Speaker 03 So there was some suspicion around this kind of mysterious illness. And this is what Johnson wrote in his autobiography about it.
16:11 Speaker 02 In the nineteen seventies, CK had dinner with a man from Taiwan's counterpart to our FBI. They were talking about the nineteen sixty four Olympics when the man dropped a bombshell. CK had been poisoned, he said. Because of the tension with mainland China, Taiwan had assigned two bodyguards to CK at the Games. Despite that precaution, this man told him, a teammate had spiked CK's orange juice at one of their meals.
16:39 Speaker 03 Yes.
16:40 Speaker 02 Shortly afterwards, that athlete and two Taiwanese journalists defected to Red China. What?
16:46 Speaker 03 Mmm.
16:47 Speaker 02 CK had always considered himself unlucky for having gotten ill at the wrong time. Instead, he may have been a victim of political warfare.
16:57 Speaker 03 Yeah.
16:57 Speaker 02 Wow.
16:58 Speaker 03 Yes. It's not just a story of CK never getting his gold medal. This is what Rafer claims, like CK has claimed it. Clearly he's told Rafer the story. There are like several documentaries that claim that this is what happened.
17:11 Speaker 02 Wow.
17:11 Speaker 03 Yeah. And the teammate, he was like a shooter and he defected to China basically shortly after.
17:18 Speaker 02 Well, there were a lot of defections. There were a lot of defections in both directions.
17:21 Speaker 03 There were. CK, after that, he retired and he never got his gold medal, basically. Uh, there's another little tidbit about Rafer Johnson.
17:30 Speaker 02 Mm hmm.
17:30 Speaker 03 He was at the assassination of Bobby F. Kennedy.
17:34 Speaker 02 What?
17:34 Speaker 03 Yeah. Uh, and so
17:36 Speaker 02 At the hotel?
17:37 Speaker 03 At the hotel, he wrestled the gun off the shooter. So there's a little video.
17:42 Speaker 02 He disarmed Sirhan Sirhan?
17:45 Speaker 03 Yeah. Yeah.
17:46 Speaker 02 Oh, my goodness.
17:53 Speaker 07 Senator Kennedy has been shot. Is that possible? Is that possible? Oh, my God. Senator Kennedy has been shot. Rafer Johnson has a hold of a man who apparently has fired the shot.
18:08 Speaker 02 Rafer Johnson has a hold of a man. Of course he does.
18:11 Speaker 03 Him and an NFL player apparently tackled him.
18:14 Speaker 02 Far out.
18:15 Speaker 03 And then apparently he pocketed the gun and took it home.
18:19 Speaker 02 Of course.
18:19 Speaker 03 Yeah. And then realised once he'd got home that he had the, the weapon that had killed Bobby Kennedy.
18:24 Speaker 02 You know how these days you put on a jacket that you haven't worn in a while and you find like a mask from COVID times in it? You're like, oh yeah, that's right. Oh, that's right. I'm just imagining, you know, years later he puts on a jacket. Oh, that's right. That's, oh, there's a gun in my pocket.
18:37 Speaker 03 Yeah. Oh, my God.
18:38 Speaker 02 That's right, my gun.
18:40 Speaker 02 Wow. That's a really interesting story. It's got all the elements. It's got surprise. It's got espionage. Fantastic.
18:53 Speaker 02 Adair, very good. Thank you very much. I'm going to get back to finishing off this episode that's coming out on Thursday, which is no less bizarre and surrounds the story of a single punch and the ramifications of this punch across Taiwanese history. Thanks so much for helping me find all the information for that episode. By the way, Adair, you're doing a really good job on this series. We're really enjoying it. Thanks. Bye. Thank you, Adair, and we'll see you Thursday.
Previous Taiwan’s 100 year fight for freedom Next Taiwan’s violent, messy, beautiful democracy Page updated October 30, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated