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Gold beckons woman pugilist to London

By Tang Yue (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-08-15 10:02

Aug 13, 2009. Zhang Xiyan will never forget the date, for it raised her hopes of getting an Olympic medal, may be gold, at the 2012 London Games.

Zhang Xiyan pounds a punchbag during a training session in Qian'an, Hebei province, on Friday. Zhang is China's best hope for an Olympic medal in women's boxing, which will make its debut at the 2012 London Games. [China Daily]

Zhang, China's best known woman boxer, was overjoyed after hearing the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announcement on Friday (Beijing time) that women's boxing would be part of the London Games.

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So palpable was Zhang's tension on the eve of the announcement that the 29-year-old couldn't sleep on Thursday night. But her tension couldn't stop her from deciding to celebrate the day with her friends with champagne if the IOC gave the nod to women's boxing.

But her first reaction was not to let the sparkling wine flow out of a bottle, but to let her tears convey her joy, as did the others at the training camp for China's national women's boxing team in Qian'an, Hebei province.

"I couldn't be happier I've been waiting for it for so long," the captain of the national team told China Daily.

She has never been so excited, she said, not even after winning the World Boxing Association, Women's International Boxing Council and Women's International Boxing Association titles from 2006 to 2007. "Nothing, nothing compares to an Olympic gold," she said.

Zhang returned to amateur boxing early this year to qualify for the Olympics.

The IOC met in Berlin on Thursday and decided that woman boxers would compete in three weight classes: flyweight (in which Zhang specializes), lightweight and middleweight, with 12 competitors in each.

"This is a chance for them to realize their dream to change their destiny," the national team coach, Yang Yi said.

Women in China took up boxing in 1997, and have grabbed many a medal at international competitions. But the sport is not popular in China. In fact, the country has only about 200 woman boxers, and most of them are poorly paid and attract little media attention.

Zhang herself lives in relative obscurity despite being the first Chinese to win a world title in professional women's boxing. In contrast, her male counterpart Zou Shiming, who won China's first boxing gold at the Beijing Games, is somewhat of a mini celebrity.

Chang Jianping, head of the boxing department of General Administration of Sports of China, said that the IOC decision would change the future of the sport in China. Chang said women's boxing would "surely be included in the next National Games, and the local government will pay more attention and invest a lot more in the sport I believe more and more girls will take to the sport."