Boxing Prodigy Im Ae-Ji Bounces Back From Trial
Left-handed boxer with a good lower body and excellent steps
Invincible streak as soon as she entered the domestic stage in high school
Bitter toward left-handed boxers at the Asian Games and Olympic Games Friend’s advice and reading to calm her nerves

Lim Ae-ji, who will compete in the 54-kilogram women’s boxing category at the Hangzhou Asian Games in September, aims to win a medal and qualify for next year’s Paris Olympics. In this photo, 토토사이트 Im Ae-ji stretches out her left fist while glaring at the camera during training at the Jincheon Athletes’ Village in North Chungcheong Province on Aug. 8.

Lim Ae-ji, 24, of Hwasun-guncheong, is known as a “boxing genius. In 2015, when she was a freshman at Jeonnam National University of Technology and Science, she entered domestic competitions as an “elite athlete” and swept the championships. In 2017, her senior year, she won gold at the World Youth Boxing Championships, her international debut. Lim came into the World Youth Championships with a cracked left tibia, but that didn’t stop her from taking home the gold. It was the first time South Korean women’s boxing had reached the pinnacle of the world championships at both the youth and adult levels.

Three years later, in 2020, Lim punched her ticket to the Olympic Games in Tokyo by finishing third in the featherweight (57 kg) category at the Asia-Oceania Regional Qualifier. She was also the first South Korean athlete to qualify for the Olympic Games since London 2012, when women’s boxing became an Olympic sport. “It was all new to me, so I just remember feeling good,” she said on Aug. 8 at the Jincheon Athletes’ Village in North Chungcheong Province.

It wasn’t without its trials. In her Asian Games debut, Lim lost 0-5 to Yin Junhua (CHN) in the quarterfinals of Jakarta-Palembang 2018. At Tokyo 2021, her first Olympic Games, she lost 1-4 to Skye Nicholson (AUS) in the round of 16.

Lim is a “southpaw” (left-handed) and her quick movement has made her an unstoppable force in Korea. Southpaws are rare in Korea. However, the world senior stage was different. Lim lost to Southpaws at both the Asian Games and the Olympics. “I prepared especially hard for the Olympics, 스포츠토토 but I couldn’t handle the pressure in the ring and lost without showing anything,” she said. “After the Olympics, I hated boxing, so I didn’t put on the gloves for a while.” What steadied her was “the people around me.

It was the “people around me” and reading that kept her going. “An athlete who had quit after winning a medal at the Winter Olympics told me, ‘It’s okay to take a break, but don’t think about quitting. I regret those days,’ and the phrase ‘If you don’t stop running, you keep growing,’ which I read in a book, resonated with me,” she says.

When she put the gloves back on two months later, she realized that if she took too long off, her body would completely shut down. “Now I go to the weight room every day out of habit, even when I’m sick, tired, or don’t feel like working out,” she says. In the past two months, she’s also been reading four self-help books in her spare time to build good habits.

With the addition of the 54-kilogram division at the Hangzhou Asian Games, which begin next month, Im Ae-ji dropped down a weight class to compete at the national selection trials in February. Han Soon-cheol, 39, a national boxing coach who has been coaching Lim, said, “She has a good lower body and an excellent step. “She has a good lower body and an excellent step. If she keeps her step and fights against lighter players, her medal chances will increase.” “She has a habit of letting her guard down after attacking, but if she fixes that, she can do well.

Lim’s goal is to be a ‘medalist’. She hopes the medal will be gold, but she doesn’t expect it. She has a history of setting one goal and then looking at it like a racehorse, and it doesn’t work out. “At the Asian Games, the four 54kg medalists (two bronze) qualify for next year’s Paris Olympics,” Lim said. I will compete with a little less pressure with the idea of qualifying for the Olympics,” 스포츠토토맨 she said.