He was hailed as the “Warrior God” and won Taiwan’s only men’s Olympic gold, but taekwondo hero Chu Mu-yen has had to battle back from lurid scandals since his famous victory.
Fans wept with emotion when Chu took the 2004 title in Athens as a 22-year-old, alongside female team counterpart Chen Shih-hsin, who won Taiwan’s first female gold.
However, a year later he had a spectacular fall from grace over an Internet sex scam.
Photo: AFP
Chu, who was dating a fellow taekwondo player at the time, was blackmailed by a fraud ring which claimed he arranged paid-for sex services. The Olympian admitted that he had spoken to a woman in an Internet chat room, but said he had turned down sex services.
Nevertheless, he handed over US$30,000 to the fraudsters, saying it was out of fear for his and his family’s safety.
Eventually Chu went to police when the fraud ring kept demanding more money. As a result, five people were jailed.
After the scandal, Chu took a disappointing bronze at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, where he had been tipped for gold, and retired from competition.
After turning to coaching, Chu courted controversy again in 2012 when he was prevented from standing as a candidate for the International Olympic Committee athletes’ commission after what officials termed “unauthorized” campaigning for the position during the London Olympics.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected his appeal, but said his behavior was “more due to excessive zeal rather than a desire to cheat.”
Despite the setbacks, Chu might taste Olympic glory again, as he is now part of Taiwan’s national taekwondo coaching team and is likely to travel to Rio.
BOUNCE BACK: Curry scored 46 points in the Warriors’ victory over the Spurs, after ‘everybody stepped up’ following Tuesday’s blowout loss to Oklahoma City Nikola Jokic scoring 50 or more points had never been enough for the Denver Nuggets to win — until now. Jokic on Wednesday night tied the highest-scoring performance in the NBA this season with 55 points, as the Nuggets beat the Los Angeles Clippers 130-116 for their sixth straight victory. The Nuggets were 0-4 in his previous 50-point outbursts. “It’s a good feeling,” the three-time NBA Most Valuable Player said. He equaled Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who had 55 in a double-overtime game at the Indiana Pacers on Oct. 23. Jokic has been on a roll during Denver’s winning streak. He is the
TIGHT GAME: The Detroit Pistons, the NBA’s second-best team, barely outlasted the Washington Wizards, who fell to an NBA-worst 1-10 with their ninth consecutive loss Cade Cunningham’s triple double, Daniss Jenkins’ three-pointer at the buzzer and Javonte Green’s overtime dunk lifted Detroit past Washington 137-135 on Monday, stretching the Pistons’ win streak to seven games. In an unexpected thriller, the NBA’s second-best team barely outlasted a Wizards club that fell to an NBA-worst 1-10 with their ninth consecutive loss. “We knew how big this game was for us,” Jenkins said. “We wasn’t going to let nothing stop us from getting this W.” Cunningham made 14-of-45 shots and 16-of-18 free throws for a career-high 46 points, and added 12 rebounds, 11 assists, five steals and two
LIKE FINE WINE: Thirty-eight-year-old Djokovic won his 101st title of his career in Athens, becoming the oldest tournament winner since Ken Roswell, 44, in 1977 Elena Rybakina on Saturday clinched her biggest title since Wimbledon in 2022, defeating world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka 6-3, 7-6 (7/0) at the WTA Finals in Riyadh. The world No. 6 put on yet another serving masterclass and was at her returning best as she became the first Kazakh and the first player representing an Asian country to lift the WTA Finals singles trophy. Having gone 3-0 in round-robin play, Rybakina earned a record US$5.235 million and would finish the year ranked No. 5 in the world. “It’s been an incredible week, I honestly didn’t expect any result, and to go so far,
The tri-nation Twenty20 international series featuring hosts Pakistan, as well as Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, is to be played entirely in Rawalpindi from Tuesday next week, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said yesterday, after this week’s suicide bombing in the capital, Islamabad. The change came after at least eight Sri Lankan players asked to leave over security fears following Tuesday’s bombing that killed 12 people and wounded 27. Their country’s cricket board issued a stern directive to the team to stay put or face consequences. Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) said the decision to stay was taken after “close consultations” with hosts Pakistan who
RSS