'Defector girl boxer': why she's a champ.

• Position: SOUTH KOREA - Choi Hyun-mi - Brief article

Boxing's popularity had faded in soccer-crazed South Korea--until 17-year-old Choi Hyun-mi came along. Choi's family fled North Korea in 2004, and four years later, she is the World Boxing Association's Women's Featherweight Champion. Her promoters play up her story, billing her as the "Defector Girl Boxer." When Choi began her boxing career in North Korea, she trained daffy under portraits of the country's Communist dictator, Kim Jong Il. Government officials had spotted her potential when she was 13. Now 5 feet 7 inches tall, Choi was almost a head taller than her peers in North Korea, where many children are malnourished. Choi's father was a successful businessman for a state-owned...