Buzau (Romania) (AFP)

Steluta Duta lived in the street, desperate to the point of contemplating suicide, before discovering boxing: today a triple European champion, this Romanian still goes into the ring with the rage to fight the exclusion of which victims are thousands of unloved children.

Boxing was "an opportunity to get out of misery and poverty", confides to AFP Steluta Duta, short cut hair and silhouette of a teenager despite her 38 years.

In 2002, after being kicked out of the home where she lived, the girl timidly entered the boxing hall of Buzau, a city in eastern Romania, a hundred kilometers from Bucharest.

If she hadn't come that day, "where, by the way, I took her for a boy (…), she would have swelled the ranks of those who sleep on the street and take drugs while sniffing glue" , says trainer Constantin Voicilas, 69, who would become his "dad".

Eighteen years and dozens of medals later, Steluta's smile fades as soon as she puts on the gloves: her brows frown and the blows rain. The determination of the one who had known only "slaps and kicks" during her childhood and adolescence has not weakened.

Abandoned at birth like two of his eight brothers and sisters, "Steluta is a child whose state did not want", summarizes Mr. Voicilas.

- Coach and guardian angel -

But, thanks to an extraordinary ambition, the trophies are piling up today in the apartment she rents in Buzau: national champion and winner of the Romanian Cup continuously since 2003, three times European champion and as many times vice-world champion in the under 48 kg category. "Sometimes I find it hard to believe. But I'm happy, I feel accomplished," she says.

Nothing predestined this "little star" ("steluta" in Romanian) to glory: in this country among the poorest in the European Union, more than one child in three is exposed to the risk of destitution and exclusion social, according to Eurostat.

High dropout rate, difficult access to the health system, physical and moral mistreatment inflicted under the guise of discipline, the situation of Romanian children, especially those living in rural areas, "remains critical", observes a report by the organization " Save the childen "published in late 2019.

"Steluta is not the only sportswoman I have ever left," says her coach. "Young girls like her find refuge here".

This over-the-face sexagenarian trainer with a mustache has made it his specialty to accompany these disadvantaged adolescents in the ring. Among the 480 medals won by the students of his club in twenty years, two-thirds were won by girls.

Bianca Lacatusu, 17, lost both parents when she was a baby. She was raised by a foster family and then placed in a home before Mr. Voicilas came to offer to try boxing.

- Become a mother -

"I like to fight," says this young girl with a piercing gaze, who dreams of one day defeating Steluta, her training partner, in whom she sees an "inspiration".

"Children from poor families are used to difficulties, they don't throw in the towel at the first hurdle and take pains to succeed," said Adrian Lacatus, coach of the national boxing team.

Among the young girls that this coach is currently training, "several will write history", he says, like Alexandra Gheorghe, vice-champion of European juniors at 17 years old.

Steluta is also preparing for the next national championship. "She will have no rival in ten years time in Romania", assures Mr. Lacatus.

Soon, she will hang up her gloves to devote herself to a coaching career and her private life.

"I want to live in good health, to have a family and above all to be a good mother," she confides, convinced that "without the love of parents, everything is in vain".

The boxer spent part of the savings from her struggles to renovate the house where her biological mother lives with her younger brothers and sisters.

© 2020 AFP