Eleven years after vowing to win a taekwondo gold medal, Chen I-chun fulfilled her contract with herself and could tear down the note on her desk.
Chen only weighed 1.6kg when she was born on Jan. 1, 1987. At age one, she still could not say “mommy” or “daddy,” and it was only after a medical examination at National Chengkung University Hospital it was discovered that she had a 50 percent hearing loss. Her mother, Ho Su-chen, said I-chun was an active child, and that she was racing bicycles with the boys when she was three or four years old. In third grade, she started practicing taekwondo.
Her mother had I-chun placed in a class for the hearing impaired at a regular school, did not allow her to use a hearing aid and made her learn sign language to prevent her from being restricted by her hearing impairment.
In third grade, I-chun started learning taekwondo under her first coach Wang Yuan-sheng, and in just two years, she advanced to black belt level.
In fifth grade, I-chun saw a recording in the training dojo of how legendary Taiwanese taekwondo athlete Chen Yi-an won the gold medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics when the sport was still only a demonstration sport. I-chun then wrote “I will win the Olympic gold” on a note and stuck it to her desk to remind herself that come hell or highwater she would win the gold.
When she had just started practicing taekwondo, she would often come home bruised. Her father noticed, but never said anything. “If you want results, you have to pay the price. She chose her own path, and she was the one who suffered. She didn’t complain, so we didn’t say anything either and just gave her our support.”
In senior high, I-chun was selected for the national taekwondo development team for the Deaflympics. She received continuous and tough training, and in May last year, she won a bronze medal at the 13th World Deaf Martial Arts Championships in Toulouse in France.
When she won the first gold for herself and for Taiwan at the Deaflympics, she didn’t look very happy. Through her interpreter she said “I am really very tired. When I’ve stopped competing, there are many things I want to do. Look for a job, learn English, and maybe even study overseas.”
After having stuck to her decision for 11 years and even being very careful with what she ate to maintain her figure and weight, all for the sake of competition, now having freed herself of the burden on her shoulders, maybe she wants nothing more than to sleep late and eat a big meal.
(LIBERTY TIMES, TRANSLATED BY PERRY SVENSSON)
十一年後，陳怡君總算實踐了與自己的約定，可以撕下書桌前的紙條。
早產的元旦寶寶陳怡君，出生時僅一千六百公克，直到一歲多還不會叫爸爸、媽媽，經成大醫院檢查，才得知有中度聽覺障礙。母親何素真說，怡君生性活潑、好動，三、四歲就和小男生一起騎腳踏車飆車，小學三年級開始學練跆拳道，她讓女兒就讀一般學校的啟聰班，不准戴助聽器、學手語，就是要避免女兒的一生被聽障缺陷給羈絆。
國小三年級在啟蒙教練王源盛指導下，開始苦練跆拳道，短短兩年，她就晉升為黑道高手。
國小五年級時，陳怡君在教練道館裡，看到了跆壇「賢拜」陳怡安在奧運示範賽奪金的錄影畫面，年幼的她難以壓抑心中激動，回家後，她寫下「我要拿下奧運金牌」的紙條，貼在書桌最醒目的位置，時時刻刻提醒自己。
剛接觸跆拳道，回家時全身常帶著傷，老爸陳益昌看在眼裡，卻從不吭聲，「想收成美好果實，一定要有付出，路是她選的，最辛苦的也是她，既然她都沒抱怨，我們也只能默默支持她。」
陳怡君高中被選上台北聽奧跆拳國家培訓隊員，接受連串嚴格訓練，去年五月，陳怡君在法國世界聽障武道錦標賽，為我國踢下一面銅牌。
當陳怡君昨在聽障奧運擂台上，為自己、也為這塊土地奪下代表隊的第一面金牌時，她的臉上沒有太多笑容，透過身旁的手語翻譯員，她表示：「我真的好累，結束比賽後，我還有很多其他的事想做，找工作、念好英文，甚至出國唸書。」
把十一年前與自己約定一直放在心底的陳怡君，為了比賽，連吃東西都要小心翼翼，維持身材與體重，當她總算卸下肩頭重擔後，心裡最想要的，恐怕只是好好睡一覺、大吃一頓吧。
（自由時報記者龍柏安、蘇福男）
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