The scene remains indelibly etched in the memories of those who followed the fortunes of Taiwan's athletes at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in August. Taiwan's Su Li-wen, battling for a bronze medal in the under-57 kilogram class of the taekwondo competition, can barely put weight on her injured left leg and repeatedly crumbles to the mat after attempting roundhouse kicks against her Croatian opponent Martina Zubcic.

But after every fall, with her face contorted with pain, she slowly returns to her feet, determined to continue. By sheer force of will, she stays even with Zubcic during the regulation three rounds before seeing the bronze medal slip away in the extra period in a 5-4 loss.

Many watching live in Beijing's USTB Gymnasium and on television were moved to tears by Su's courage and perseverance in fighting through the excruciating pain.

Sitting in the coffee shop of Chang Gung Memorial Hospital's Linkou branch, Su still reveals signs of her Olympic struggle. Much of her left leg is still in a cast, and bending her surgically repaired left knee by more than a couple of degrees brings unbearable pain. Su recalls that when she kicked with her left leg in Beijing, it felt as though her calf had become detached from her thigh, leaving her without any power.

"During the bouts, I really wasn't clear how seriously injured I was. I only knew that victory or defeat depended on that kick,” said the 27-year-old in a focused and mature voice, belying her sometimes mischievous personality developed as the youngest member of her family.

It was later discovered that Su had torn the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and lateral collateral ligament (LCL) in her left knee and fractured the fourth toe on her left foot, injuries apparently suffered during her round-of-16 1-0 defeat to eventual gold medalist Lim Sujeong of South Korea. Su only earned a chance at bronze by beating Robin Cheong 1-0 in the repechage round with her one good leg, less than an hour before she faced Zubcic.

Accepting Unreasonable Demands without a Word

In the world of taekwondo, the difference between winning and losing is often one kick, which takes a mere 0.63 seconds to execute. Athletic ability and keen reflexes are often necessary assets for success, but Su's trail to the top tells a different story.

In person, the still-recovering Su appears somewhat smaller than the athlete who filled TV screens with her ferocious kicks. Su is a well-toned athlete, with 9 percent body fat, but at 1.71 meters and 57 kilograms, she is not considered tall by the sport's standards. Born flat-footed, she does not have much natural spring or stamina and is anything but what one would describe as a gifted athlete.

Her coach has even described her as having the ugliest movements, the worst technique and the least ability of any taekwondo athlete in his training center. Yet Su, who was pushed into studying taekwondo by her parents at the age of 10 because of her fragile physique, developed a deep interest in the sport.

"A bout that averages 7 1/2 minutes not only tests your stamina but even more the quickness of your reflexes and perceptiveness. It's a ruthless stage,” Su tells CommonWealth Magazine with the voice of someone who's been there.

The rules and principles of taekwondo have deeply influenced how she looks at and faces life.

Su will never forget an eight-character inscription hung on the wall of her taekwondo training center, which reads: "Venerate Propriety, Uphold Righteousness, Obey, Endure.”  

When she first entered the training center, her coach Li Shan-long demanded that she stand at attention, salute, greet, kneel and listen to his instructions. Her first task every day was to do 100 push-ups, and if she was late to training or made a mistake, she would be subject to even more arduous tasks.

Su's mother can barely fathom what her daughter went through – "My daughter started out perfectly intact, but trained until she had injuries all over her body,” she says – but Su herself sees her training as a process of fulfillment.

"Even if there are unreasonable demands, I'll do them if they help me improve, like doing 500 sets of frogman calisthenics. If they'll increase my conditioning and I'll benefit, then I'll do them without saying a word,” Su says.     

The spirit of taekwondo instilled in her has made Su much stronger than her peers in facing life's challenges, including financing her education.

Her family can hardly be considered prosperous. "My family is only a little, little, little bit well-off,” she says. Her father and mother own a stationery store in Taishan Township in Taipei County. During difficult times, they struggled to support three children on little more than a hundred Taiwan dollars a day.

When Su was studying at a five-year junior college, she had to work multiple jobs to earn her tuition and living expenses. At one point, she held three different jobs to make ends meet, working as a lifeguard in the morning, a waitress at noon, and a swimming instructor at night. She also had a temp job recording traffic volume on local roads.

Although her family could not give her ample financial support, her father's optimistic outlook provided a precious spiritual gift to his daughter.

That was especially true when Su began participating in international competitions and suffered repeated setbacks. She would often come home in tears, complaining about referees and judges who favored home country athletes or that her opponents deliberately attacked her head, concluding that the gold medal had been "stolen” from her.

Her father would repeatedly remind his youngest daughter, "It's you who didn't win by a big enough margin. If you were stronger and could move just a bit quicker, the gold medal wouldn't pass you by.”

Once her father's advice hit home, Su stopped complaining and started facing injustices in the sport with a different mindset, no longer making excuses for herself.

Her newfound will to persevere to the end enabled this taekwondo athlete who was not athletically gifted to grow increasingly fierce. When she made the national taekwondo team, she was nicknamed "Little Golden Superwoman.”

The first time Su competed in national qualifiers for taekwondo's Asian Cup championship, she lost her opening-round match. But in a tournament that kept her in the gym from 8 in the morning to midnight, she won 9 consecutive bouts to emerge the winner of the repechage bracket, only to lose the final bout against the winner of the main draw.

Courageously Facing Life's Ups and Downs

Su's doting older sister Su Li-fang, who is four years older than her Olympian sibling and shared a bed with her when they were growing up, is familiar with her younger sister's will.

"I often hear that she made it up through the repechage round. She always persists until the very last second, and if she can't take it anymore, she still holds on for a little longer,” says Su Li-fang with a tinge of discomfort over her younger sister's suffering but also plenty of satisfaction and pride.  

One of Su's first disappointments came in 2000, when she was given a chance by some observers to qualify for a spot at the Sydney Games, the first time taekwondo would be an official Olympic event. But in the national qualifying tournament to determine the country's representative in the women's under-57 kg division, Su had to face her idol, 1.78-meter Chen Yi-an. Chen had captured the hearts of many Taiwanese by winning a gold medal in the lightweight division at the 1992 Barcelona Games, when taekwondo was still an exhibition event.

Su's idol became a roadblock to her Olympic ambitions, leaving her with conflicted feelings. She saw her opponent as somebody far out of her league, yet still coveted an Olympic slot. Her easily impulsive nature revealed itself during the bout, as in the second round of the three-round battle, Chen landed a kick to Su's face that dislodged one of her contact lenses. Rather than calling timeout to recover the lens, Su quickly removed the lens in her other eye, leaving her and her severe nearsightedness to battle the former Olympic champion. Su eventually lost 2-1 and was eliminated from Olympic contention.

One of Su's favorite sparring partners in the past was Huang Chih-hsiung, a taekwondo bronze medalist in Sydney and silver medalist in 2004 in Athens. Now a KMT legislator, Huang says Su is "up and down” during competitions and needs to become more consistent, both mentally and physically. 

He believes Su's decision to continue competing in Beijing somewhat reflected her impetuous personality. Once Su injured the ligaments in her left knee, her chances of winning fell dramatically, because the ligaments could no longer rotate or support her, leaving her right leg unable to exert any force, Huang suggests, hinting that she might have been better off pulling out. Yet he also says her competitive spirit at the Beijing Olympics was worthy of admiration, as she displayed a determination that few other athletes could have matched.

Su clearly recognizes that she has room to improve, but in the process of coping with success and disappointment, she has already developed resilience in handling life's hardships. 

When she is at her lowest, her explosive temper flares, and she wraps herself in her anger. Even if she is slowed down by a cast, she will insist on training and never back down.

Venting her temper is her way of coexisting with frustration, but when she is calm, Su will set a goal and try to win points back in the next round or next bout.

"I am firmly convinced that if I lose to somebody by five points the first time, I'll only lose the second bout by three points, and continually narrow the margin,” Su asserts.

She also has a philosophy to deal with success, which she has tasted as champion of the 2006 Asian Games, the 2007 World University Games in Bangkok and the 2008 Asian Taekwondo Championship. She refuses to bathe in her triumphs for too long, going so far as to believe that "success can sometimes hurt people,” because success in one tournament does not guarantee a positive outcome the next time.

The surgical scar on her thigh and the cast on her leg, leftovers from her Beijing adventure, cannot dampen Su's courage in pursuing her dream.

Peering out the window of the hospital coffee shop at the blue sky and white clouds, Su insists she will not give up her goal of winning Olympic gold. Even if she falls or rams into a wall, she will persist in following her dream, continuing to battle indefatigably to perfect the 0.63 kick that means the difference between victory and defeat.

Translated from the Chinese by Luke Sabatier

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Chinese Version: 蘇麗文 為０‧六三秒做足準備