UFC Partners With Chinese Olympic Committee
Today, the UFC and the Chinese Olympic Committee announced a multi-year deal that will have the UFC play a crucial role in helping Chinese athletes prepare and train for the 2021 Summer Olympics and the 2022 Winter Olympics.
The deal sees the UFC serving as the Official High Performance Advisor to the Chinese Olympic Committee, and the UFC Performance Institute in Shanghai serve as the Official High Performance Training Centre.
The UFC will provide support to Chinese athletes through a number of physical and rehabilitation services. These services will emphasise on strength and conditioning, sports science, physical therapy, and nutrition. The training philosophies, techniques, and equipment of the UFC will also be provided to the athletes during their training.
Monumental Partnership
The Chinese Olympic Committee hopes that the UFC’s state-of-the-art facilities and training methods will give their athletes increased preparation and recovery. This should potentially mean better performances in the 2021 Tokyo Games and 2022 Beijing Games.
“Enhancing physical training and making up for the weakness in physical strength is the foundation of preparation for the Olympics. We are delighted to work with the UFC and send elite athletes to the UFC Performance Institute Shanghai to take part in physical and recovery training. We hope UFC’s scientific training system provides help for Chinese athletes to prepare for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics,” said the COC Office of Preparation.
This is the first time the UFC has partnered with an Olympic sanctioning body. Senior Vice President of UFC Asia-Pacific Kevin Chang, said a partnership like this is monumental.
“UFC is proud to partner with the Chinese Olympic Committee and be a valuable resource for their athletes. UFC built this facility to demonstrate its strong commitment to China and to serve elite-level athletes who want to develop their skills and achieve excellence in their respective sports. This partnership is a model for how we want to serve the athletic community in Asia going forward.”
Vice President of Performance at the UFC Performance Institute Duncan French, said that it is one of the UFC’s goals to become a global leader in high performance beyond MMA.
“The larger ambition of the UFC Performance Institute is to be a global leader in high performance across all sports, not just MMA. While our core mission continues to be to support UFC athletes, we have the resources and expertise to be a difference maker to elite athletes who want to optimise their approach to competition preparation and recovery. We plan to use our staff experts in both our Las Vegas and Shanghai facilities to apply their knowledge and experience to help Chinese Olympians reach their full potential.”
Access To New Facilities
With the UFC Performance Institute at their disposal, the Chinese athletes will be allowed access to an array of services. These include:
- Customised training, nutrition, and supplementation plans
- World-class, daily coaching in strength and conditioning, sports science, and physical therapy
- World-leading diagnostic capabilities that will evaluate performance standards
- Comprehensive assessment of body composition and metabolic rate
- Access to comprehensive medical and manual therapy services with world-leading practitioners
- Access to medical services for rehabilitation, maintenance, and/or preventative therapies
- Access to comprehensive recovery capabilities, including cryotherapy, hydrotherapy, compression, laser, and other modalities.
Collaborating Before The Announcement
Even before announcing their partnership, the UFC and the Chinese Olympic Committee had been working together for 18 months on training some of China’s national sports teams. These sports included cycling, judo, rowing, sailing, speed skating, swimming, track & field, wind surfing, and wrestling.
Opened in June 2019, the UFC Performance Institute in Shanghai is the world’s largest mixed martial arts training and development facility at 93,000 square feet. The Shanghai branch is nearly three times larger than its American counterpart in Las Vegas. It serves as the UFC headquarters in Asia, as well as the training ground for the next generation of MMA athletes from both mainland China and the Asia Pacific region.
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