UFC signs deal with Chinese Olympic Committee for Games hopefuls to use Shanghai Performance Institute
- US$13 million facility signs multi-year deal to become high-performance training centre for the Chinese Olympic Committee
- The PI will help athletes prepare and add an edge for next year’s Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 Beijing Winter Games
The UFC’s Performance Institute in Shanghai will be used to fine-tune China’s elite athletes with news on Wednesday that the facility has officially signed a multi-year deal to become the “high-performance training centre” for the Chinese Olympic Committee.
“It makes us much more than mixed martial arts,” Kevin Chang, senior vice-president, UFC Asia-Pacific, told the South China Morning Post.
“We are certainly experts in high performance. This is a really important one for us on several levels. It’s always good to maintain good government relations anywhere in the world, but particularly in China, and the COC is the backbone of all sports within the country.
“If one of the main objectives of the performance institute is to raise the bar for sport in China, this is the entity we need to work with.”
The US$13 million facility – which opened in June last year – will open up its high-performance physical and rehabilitation services to China’s Olympic athletes as they prepare for next year’s Summer Games in Tokyo as well at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games.
The focus will be on “strength and conditioning, sports science, physiotherapy and nutrition”, according to the UFC, with the institute offering visiting Chinese Olympic hopefuls “training philosophies, techniques, and use of its facility’s state-of-the-art equipment, all supervised and administered by UFC’s staff of sports performance professionals.”