Seven years ago, Chen Shih-hsin (陳詩欣) ran away from everything she knew and sold betel nuts in Taichung. Now, three years after returning to the sport with which she grew up, she is Taiwan's premier Olympic gold medalist.
The athletic career of the Women's Taekwondo Under 49kg champion is full of dramatic twists.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The 25-year-old was born into a taekwondo family. Her father, Chen Wei-hsiung (陳偉雄), ran a taekwondo training center in Shipai, near Beitou in Taipei, which meant that Chen learned to fight young.
Under her father's guidance Chen showed early potential. When she was 14, Chen trained for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and played a crucial role in helping teammate Chen Yi-an (陳怡安) get a gold for what was then a demonstration sport.
At 15, Chen shocked the taekwondo world by coming first in her debut appearance at the Taekwondo World Cup in the Cayman Islands.
But then things fell apart.
Chen was 18 when she suddenly went missing from her taekwondo training center in Kaohsiung, apparently unable to deal with the harsh discipline that the training demanded.
Chen fled home and eked out a living in Taichung, becoming a roadside vendor of clothes and betel nuts.
"I really wanted to go home when I was struggling out there," Chen told reporters. "A number of times, I gathered enough courage to go up to our front door, but I just couldn't go in. I knew my parents and my family were so disappointed in me. Dad especially -- I knew he was so downhearted about me leaving that he even wanted to give up taekwondo, which he'd been teaching for 30 years.
"And I also knew that taekwondo gave spiritual support to Dad and me. For him, losing me was losing taekwondo, which meant that he'd lost everything," she said. "So many times I just wanted to see Dad when I walked past our house, but I just couldn't do it because I felt so guilty.
"So I just hid in a corner, watching Dad all depressed, and I left in tears," she said.
But Chen's torment ended after hearing a line in a commercial which featured a son who was saddened about not being able to look after his parents in their old age. This convinced Chen to return home and apologize to her father.
Thus, on the day of her father's birthday, Chen made a promise to put on her "battle armor" once more. Back in the arena, Chen's attitude became doubly diligent and conscientious -- she knew she had three years to make up.
With her basic skills intact, she was quick to pick up strength and win a gold medal at the 2001 East Asian Games at Osaka, followed by a gold medal at Pusan in Korea the following year.
So, 12:30pm on Aug. 27, 2004, was not only the key moment for a country earning its first gold medal, but also a key moment for a young woman proving herself.
Chen has new plans: to enroll in a PhD in Sports Marketing at the University of California, Berkeley, or else to do a PhD in sports psychology at Beijing University.
Rain is to increase from Wednesday morning as Severe Tropical Storm Kong-Rey approaches, with sea warnings to be issued as early as tomorrow afternoon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. As of 8am, Kong-Rey was 1,050km east-southeast of the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春) heading in a northwesterly direction toward Taiwan, CWA Forecast Center Director Lin Po-tung (林伯東) said. Rainfall is to increase from Wednesday morning, especially in northern Taiwan and Yilan County, he said. A sea warning is possible from tomorrow afternoon, while a land warning may be issued on Wednesday morning, he added. Kong-Rey may intensify into a moderate typhoon as it passes
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
Taiwan yesterday issued warnings to four Chinese coast guard vessels that intruded into restricted waters around the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen Islands, according to the Coast Guard Administration (CGA). The four China Coast Guard ships were detected approaching restricted waters south of Kinmen at around 2 pm yesterday, the CGA’s Kinmen-Matsu Branch said in a statement. The CGA said it immediately deployed four patrol boats to closely monitor the situation. When the Chinese ships with the hull numbers "14512," "14609," "14603" and "14602" separately entered the restricted waters off Fuhsing islet (復興嶼), Zhaishan (翟山), Sinhu (新湖) and Liaoluo (料羅) at 3 pm, the Taiwanese patrol
A former member of the US Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU), formerly known as SEAL Team 6, said in an interview with Business Insider that the elite unit’s role in a Taiwan Strait conflict would be more limited than some might expect. The report follows an earlier one in September by the Financial Times, which said the “clandestine US Navy commando unit” has been training for missions to help Taiwan if it is invaded by China. “You don’t use a scalpel for a job a hammer can do,” the former Navy Seal said to Business Insider on condition of anonymity.