Canan Taş (left) has already defeated all opponents at the German Championships. The journey to the top should now continue to Paris.
Foto: imago/Ostseephoto
The date is burned into Canan Taş. On September 2, 2019, she visited the sports hall on Cottbus’s Gartenstrasse for the first time for a boxing training session. A day that would change her life – towards a competitive sports career. “If you had asked me back then: ‘Are you boxing at the Olympics in Paris in 2024?’, I would of course have answered: ‘I don’t think so.’ But now it’s no longer impossible,” says the 28-year-old with a sympathetic and at the same time still incredulous smile. Because a little more than four years after her first training lesson at the Cottbuser Boxverein 2010 e. V., Canan Taş is the German number one in the featherweight category (up to 57 kilograms) and is scheduled to represent the German Boxing Association (DBV) at the beginning of March at the first qualification for the Olympic boxing tournament in Paris in Busto Arsizio, Italy.
Taş’s story is currently one of the most exciting in German sport. Father Ahmet is of Turkish origin, mother Katarzyna comes from Poland. Born and raised in Cottbus in 1995, her daughter later graduated from high school at the Theodor Fontane School. This is followed by commercial training in Hanover and Leipzig. In terms of sport, the young woman first became acquainted with martial arts through Taekwondo. In 2019, Taş returned to Lusatia and, on a warm summer evening, after a conversation with her mother, decided: “I’m going to go boxing.” Father Ahmet, who comes from Cologne, used to be a boxer himself and was also in the DBV when he was a junior -Selection was made, knows the right people in Cottbus and organizes the first training session.
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»Somehow I grew up with boxing. Fear never played a role – and I always had the complete support of my family,” says Canan Taş, remembering her beginnings. In mid-November 2019 she gets into the ring for her first fight at the Cottbus Glad-House. And wins. »I never put myself under pressure. The most important thing was always to have fun. One thing then led to another. I went into it very naively, was pulled along and stuck with it,” she remembers today. After another strong fight in the Corona summer of 2021 at the Cottbus Boxing Night, she received the offer to move to the Olympic base in Frankfurt (Oder).
“I really noticed Canan’s courage during sparring,” remembers national coach René Benirschke, who has been looking after the boxer at the DBV’s federal base there for two and a half years. The late-comer has developed enormously physically, technically and tactically since then, but above all the Cottbus native scores points in the fights thanks to her outstanding mentality. »Canan is and will no longer be a delicate boxer. She is definitely a fighter. Your attitude is right. She just likes to push herself to her limits and is an example of a successful career change into boxing,” says Benirschke about Taş. Steffen “Kuno” Rehn, her first trainer and sponsor in Cottbus, puts it even more directly: “Canan simply has a boxer’s heart.”
Since the end of 2021, Taş has had official status as a squad athlete and can therefore fully concentrate on sport. As a member of the sports support group of the Brandenburg fire department, she earns enough to live on and, in addition to sports, is also training as a candidate fire chief at the state school and technical facility for fire and disaster control (LSTE) in Eisenhüttenstadt.
Since joining the squad, things have improved step by step in terms of sport. After her first international appearances, she will become German featherweight champion for the first time in December 2022. And after just 25 fights, you now have the chance to fight for a starting place for Paris 2024. »Sometimes I think: Wow! The last few years have been like an ICE ride – from 0 to 300,” Canan Taş looks in amazement in the rearview mirror.
With just over two dozen fights, the 28-year-old lacks fighting and wrestling experience, but she makes up for it with her willpower, she says. »My bite is pretty big – I’ve always been a fighter. And maybe I’m a little further ahead mentally than others because I have a little more life experience,” says Taş about himself.
National coach René Benirschke believes that his protégé can go far despite boxing’s limited resources. »Canan boxes from a stable and very closed cover. It’s not that easy to meet her, and in the end she also says a lot about her fitness,” says Benirschke. Most recently, she impressed at the World Cup competitions in Cologne and Sheffield and brought bronze medals back with her to her shared room in Cottbus. “The last fights have shown that I can keep up with the best in the world,” says Taş.
What once began on a whim in a gym in Cottbus could now lead to the Olympic stage in record time. “The topic has of course become more and more interesting and bigger for me,” she says. In Busto Arsizio, two tickets will be awarded in their weight class for Paris 2024. »I think it’s important first of all that Canan has a good boxing tournament and that the judges notice her. Canan has never been to such a big tournament. It’s important to gain experience there,” says national coach Benirschke. He therefore believes that his chances of getting an Olympic ticket at the second qualifying tournament in Bangkok at the beginning of May are even greater.
Either way: Canan Taş wants to take advantage of her chance. »Of course the Olympic Games are a little dream for me that I would like to experience. And as long as the opportunity isn’t over, I won’t close the topic. Instead of Garden Street, it could possibly be called the Roland Garros stadium in the summer – the Olympic boxing matches are also held in the famous Paris tennis temple.
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