A Leg Up on the Competition : Tae Kwon Do Athlete Chao Is a 1992 Olympic Hopeful

While some athletes can’t stop talking about themselves and their skills, Hsian Chao is a competitor of very few words.

Chao, who celebrated her 16th birthday two weeks ago, doesn’t like to talk about her feats in the martial arts. In fact, she doesn’t like to talk at all.

But oral communication had nothing to do with the 36 gold medals the Rancho Palos Verdes teen-ager has earned in just a few years of tae kwon do competition.

“She’s a natural--a genius of this martial art,” master Kwon Sung Choi said. “The best I’ve ever seen.”

Choi, who was recently appointed coach of the U.S. National Team, persuaded Chao to try the Korean martial art six years ago. He has been amazed by the 5-foot-3, 105-pound girl ever since.

“Usually it takes three years to get a black belt,” Choi said. “She took only two years, one month.”

Choi, an 11-time Korean national champion and sixth-degree black belt, said Chao is much better than he ever was.

“I can’t believe it because I’ve spent almost 30 years in tae kwon do, but I’ve never seen this kind of girl,” he said. “Her legs, and her punching and kicking are actually stronger than boys. She’s powerful like a spring.”

Choi, a two-time coach at the U.S. Olympic Festival, said that Chao’s speed and snap enables her to break four to five inches of wooden board with her bare hands and feet--a very difficult task for girls of a similar build.

“But she is a very shy girl,” he said.

Getting Chao to try tae kwon do wasn’t easy for Choi.

The master first met Chao, then 9, when she would wait for her younger brother Hueh to finish his workout with Choi at the San Pedro Tae Kwon Do Training Center. She loved to watch the workouts, but would never join the group when asked to. After eight months of urging, Choi finally got Chao on the mat. After a kick and a punch, she was hooked.

It wasn’t long before the other students learned about the new kid in class.

“I had to find her an opponent,” Choi said. “Actually it has to be girl to girl and boy to boy but there was no opponent for her.

“I asked the boys, ‘Who is going to be Hsian’s opponent?’ They all stood there tongue faced. They didn’t want to fight her--she’s too strong.”

Chao earned her first-degree black belt in August of 1986. From there she went on to become a Junior National Champion twice.

In February of 1989 she graduated to a second degree black belt. In early December Chao took her first big step at establishing herself among senior world-class tae kwon do competitors. She defeated Diana Radakovich, who was a national team member at the time, after flooring her twice in the championship match of the Las Vegas Invitational. Radakovich and Chao are good friends and schoolmates at Narbonne High.

Chao took first-place honors at the state tournament in Bakersfield in March, qualifying her for the U.S. National Championships in Madison, Wis., in May. She finished third at the national tournament, giving her a berth to the U.S. Team Trials at the Olympic Center in Colorado Springs in June.

Chao dropped all six top-ranked women in the flyweight division in Colorado to earn a spot on the national team.

Her final victories over world champions Terry Poindexter and Ginean Hatter put Chao on the 1992 Olympic hopeful list.

Lou Solo, manager of the Palos Verdes Tae Kwon Do Training Center where Chao has worked out since its opening in February, said she is the one athlete to watch.

“I’m telling you something, she’s the gold medalist of 1992, barring injury,” Solo said.

Chao shakes her head in disagreement at this comment and most of what is said about her talent.

“It’s over her head,” Solo said. “She’s basically a child with unset goals.”

Choi instructed Chao to call him from Minneapolis to tell him how she did in the championship match of last month’s Olympic Festival. When Chao didn’t call him or her mother, Choi assumed that she had lost. It wasn’t until Choi picked up Chao at the airport the next day that the coach learned the truth. She won the match, but “didn’t think it was any big deal.”

Chao’s schedule will only get busier over the next few months. She left for Korea last week to participate in a foreign exchange tae kwon do program with Korea and Chinese Taipei. One week after her return, she will fly out to Colorado to work out with other National Team members at the U.S. Olympic Training Center. From there the team will fly together to Bayamon, Puerto Rico, for the 7th annual Pan-American Taekwondo Championships.

In early November, Chao will travel to Madrid for the World Cup competition.

Chao’s parents, James and Helen Chao, who own and operate Pung Lai’s Chinese Restaurant in Lomita, have three children, all of whom are black belts.

“I am very lucky,” Helen Chao said. “I never have to worry about (Hsian). She takes care of everything at home--cleaning and the children. She always says, ‘don’t worry mom.’ ”

Helen Chao is proud of her daughter’s accomplishments, but is more amused by Hsian’s tae kwon do moves than she is awe-struck.

“We’ll be going to the movies, or walking down the street, or something and she’ll do a side kick. I say to her, ‘Hsian, you are not like a normal girl--stop doing that.’ She says, ‘OK, mom,’ but five minutes later she’s doing it again.”

Helen worrys about her daughter’s education and fears that too much time is spent in the studio instead of with the books.

But Hsian has maintained a 4.0 grade-point average through her sophomore year in the Magnet Program at Narbonne.

When asked about her daughter’s prospects of competing in the Olympic Games, Helen said: “I don’t know, are the Olympic Games important?”