February 1st, 2021
Asian athletes: part 4
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Credits
Author: Jencie Tomasek
Editor: Marykate Wee
Layout: Abigail Jung
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Credits
Author: Jencie Tomasek
Editor: Marykate Wee
Layout: Abigail Jung
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Keone and Mari are choreographers and dancers. Keone is a choreographer and dancer for the Kinjaz. The couple travel around the world and teach classes. They are both American Filipinos. Featured in Justin Bieber’s “Love Yourself” music video, the pair competed on the first season for NBC’s World of Dance. They were nominated for best choreography at the MTV Music Awards and the UK Video Music Awards. Their YouTube videos have garnered over 2 billion views. Recently, the couple have choreographed their first full length off-Broadway show: Beyond Babel, which was nominated for 2 Drama Desk Awards. The pair opened up a studio of their own that features an elite online dance training program, where they have been teaching classes during the pandemic.
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Source: http://imamemberofredsoxnation.mlblogs.com/2008/03/27/red-sox-nation-is-flat-and-other-final-thoughts-from-japan/)
Video link to a documentary about him includes clips of him playing: https://youtu.be/1nSGchG46lI |
Wally Yonamine was an American athlete born in 1925 in Hawaii. He was the first Asian American to play professional football in the US, playing as a running back for the San Francisco 49ers. Wally later left the team due to a wrist injury, and then became the first American to play professional baseball in Japan, leading off the Yomiuri Giants. A 3-time batting champion, he led the Giants to 8 pennants and was named MVP in 1957. He played for 12 seasons, and had 1,337 hits and 482 runs batted in. Wally retired in ‘62, and became a successful coach and manager. He was inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1994, and a biography about him was published in 2008.
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Source: Steve Scalise
Video link: https://youtu.be/k6KwfKwsv-E |
Jim Paek was born in Seoul, Republic of Korea and is a retired professional hockey player who was drafted to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 1985 NHL Entry. He is a 2 time Stanley Cup champion, and has played with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Los Angeles Kings, and Ottawa Senators. He is the first of two Korean hockey players to ever play in the NHL and the first Korean to have his name engraved on the Stanley cup. His Penguins sweater currently hangs in the Hockey Hall of Fame to honor such feats. This former defenseman is the director of Korea’s Ice Hockey Association and coached the men’s national team for the 2018 Olympics.
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Michael Chang is a retired professional tennis player who started his professional career at 15. In 1987, he was the youngest player to win a main draw match at the US Open and the youngest to make it to the Tour semifinals. At 17 years old, he became the youngest French Open champion, beating the number 1 ranked tennis player (Ivan Lendl), surprising many. Michael also became the Grand Slam Champion in ‘89 becoming the youngest to rank in the top 5. For the majority of his career, he stayed in the top 10 consistently while other players rose and faded. He’s still considered one of the fastest players on the circuit, “possessing an all-court game”. Michael has 34 singles titles and his fastest serve is 130 mph. Now married and with 3 children, he hosts the annual Michael Chang Tennis Classic and is the founder of the Chang Family Foundation.
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Amy Chow is a 1996 Olympic Silver Medalist in bars and helped Team USA secure a bronze medal (2000) and a gold medal (1996) in gymnastics as a member of the “Magnificent Seven”. She was the first Asian American gymnast to qualify for an Olympics, and has two difficult skills named after her in the gymnastics’ code of points. Amy is known for her extremely difficult routines. In the trials for the ‘96 games, she fell off the beam during her routine but went back up to finish her set and scored high enough to make the USA Team. She is now a physician and surgeon in California. She is a role model to many Asian American kids and their families for all of the hoops she leapt through to achieve the fame she has today.
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Source: Koreaboo
Video link to him diving in 1952 :https://youtu.be/2J6i1QA1WeI |
Sammy Lee was a Korean American physician and diver. He was the first Asian American to win an Olympic gold medal for the United States team and the second Asian American to win a gold medal overall. As the first man to win back to back gold medals in Olympic platform diving, he was born to Korean descent parents. Growing up, he wasn't allowed to use specific pools because of his race. To combat this issue, his coach dug a pit in his backyard and filled it with sand, allowing the young boy to practice his jumps and flips there. Attending USC School of Medicine, he later joined the Army Reserve. Sammy was the first person of color to win a national diving title, and later inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in ‘68 and the US Olympic Hall of Fame in ‘90.
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Source: International Business Times
Video link to a documentary entitled The Last Pick: https://youtu.be/u3cfLvCsm54 |
Jeremy Lin is a basketball player most known for causing the worldwide phenomenon ‘Linsanity”. Born in 1988 in L.A. this Harvard graduate stands at 6’3” and is a guard. Over the course of his career, he has played for many teams such as the Los Angeles Lakers, New York Knicks, Toronto Raptors, Houston Rockets, and Golden State Warriors. In 2019, Jeremy and the Raptors won a championship, but because no NBA team signed him as a free agent, he signed with the Beijing Ducks (a team part of the Chinese Basketball Association.) With the Ducks, he dropped 40 points, proving that he should probably be on an NBA roster. Jeremy led the Ducks to the semifinals when he announced he would try to get into the NBA once more. Back in the 2011-12 season while playing with the Knicks, he received worldwide fame and put up many points and assists. Linsanity caused even Chinese basketball fans’ pride to resurface as he was the first Chinese-American basketball player to establish himself in the NBA. Jeremy says, “I want to help Chinese basketball, Asian basketball to grow so that one day the world can truly respect Asian players.”
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Vincent Zhou is a figure skater. Vincent came in 6th at the 2018 Olympics, and had unsuccessfully tried balancing an elite skating career with freshman classes at Brown University. Vincent is a world junior champion and a senior world bronze medalist. He can speak fluent Mandarin and has a large fan base in the world’s most populous nation (China). Back in 2015, Vincent moved from California to Colorado, and 2 years later was pulled from his last competition due to right-knee surgery and a torn lateral meniscus. In the first 6 months, he learned how to execute the quad Salchow and triple Axel. He’s also one of two Americans that can do a quad toe loop, currently. Finishing 5th at the 2016 World Junior Championships, he was 10 months younger than everyone who was in the Top Four. At only 17, Vincent was the youngest athlete in the entire US delegation in South Korea, beating his own personal bests. After suffering from back and shoulder injuries, he pushed through and finished 3rd at Worlds, standing among Nathan Chen and Yuzuru Hanyu- two of the best skaters of this generation. Both Vincent and Nathan have a healthy rivalry with one another which makes for very fun competitions, and both plan to compete in the 2022 Olympics.
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Source: celebmafia.com
Video link to her and William Levy’s Salsa Finale on DWTS; https://youtu.be/bFbsHWVPLYc |
Cheryl Burke is an American dancer who is known for being a professional dancer on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars. As the first female professional to win the show twice and consecutively, she has participated in 23 seasons so far. Cheryl also replaced Abby Lee Miller on the hit reality show Dance Moms in 2017. She has been awarded numerous awards such as the 2005 World Cup Professional Rising Star Latin Champion and won a PrimeTime Emmy in 2006 for Outstanding Choreography. She was also awarded in 2007 the Role Model Award at the 7th Annual Filipino/American Library Gala and 2008 Asian Excellence Awards. Currently, she’s competing with Backstreet Boys’ AJ McLean on the 29th season of Dancing with the Stars.
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