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.
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