Winning two gold medals at the Olympics in Taekwondo as a demonstration sport, Chen Yi-An is dubbed as “First Generation Taekwondo Star.” She took part in Women’s Fencing – Epee – 50+, competing against athletes from all over the world, demonstrating her resilience and passion towards sports that never fades years after retirement, and showing her new image to the world that she’s willing to cross over and challenge herself.
Chen Yi-An, now 52, snatched gold in Taekwondo (47-51kg) as a demonstration sport when she was 15 at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, becoming Chinese Taipei’s first female athlete to win a gold medal at the Olympics. She later defended her championship at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Afterwards, she left the taekwondo venue, returned to her family, and devoted herself to the workplace. Now she’s back to competing in a brand-new sport, Fencing, which not only amazes everyone, but also adds some moving highlight to the WMG2025.
“It was probably 30 years ago when so many media came to cover my story last time,” Chen said. “I was flattered, but I’m grateful for everyone’s attention.” In front of the cameras that she hadn’t seen for a long time, Chen said that the motivation for her to come back was simply to promote exercising through actual actions. She admitted that it’s inevitable for her to “put up a facade” as a former renowned national athlete, but she must let it go when facing a brand-new sport. “Trying something new at different phases in life gives you unexpected harvests,” Chen said. “Keeping learning and competing is actually a way of loving oneself. I once forgot how to take care of myself when I was busy with my family and workplace, but I found the person who’s willing to fight for myself.”
During the round robin preliminary, Chen advanced with a 3-1 record, and defeated a Thai athlete 10-3 in the second round, but then lost to Chinese Taipei athlete Yeh Hsun Pei, 1-10, ranking No.5. “Actually,” Chen said. “I was really happy that I could advance to the second round. My original goal was to advance. Although it’s such a pity that I didn’t place because the design of the medal is so adorable, I met a lot of old friends during the competition. We took pictures and chatted, and all these were worth it to me.” She said excitedly that she bumped into coach Lee Chin-Ho and his son, athlete Lee Han-Cheng (Iyun Dado). Lee Chin-Ho was a Modern Pentathlon athlete in 1988, and his son, who was born at the time, was thus named Han-Cheng (the pronunciation of Han-Cheng sounds the same as Hanseong, the old name of Seoul). Iyun Dado was a national athlete in Canoe Slalom, who will also participate in the WMG2025.
She mocked herself, saying that transferring from taekwondo to fencing, she lost severely when she participated in a fencing competition before the pandemic, and she stopped training afterwards, only to regain her training rituals until she registered for the WMG2025. Chen’s family was at the venue to cheer her on. Her son took one day off to watch her competition, and her daughter’s classmates were there to cheer for her as well. “I’m glad I registered,” Chen said with emotion. “I’m glad that I practiced; otherwise, I’d miss these moments.” She also encouraged everyone to take the first step. “No matter how old you are,” Chen said. “No matter who you are, you can start anytime. You’ll realize that it really feels wonderful.”
Chen will take part in Women’s Team Epee at 9 a.m. tomorrow (21st), competing with two other teammates who also practice at National Taiwan University. “Team competitions are interesting,” Chen said. “As long as the age of three people combined is over 120, they’re qualified to compete, so it’s possible to play against young players who are national athletes or Olympics athletes, opponents that you usually don’t encounter at age group competition, so I’m kind of looking forward to ‘practicing’ with them, which is a rare opportunity.”
