- Black Belt Magazine
- 3 hours ago
- 3 min read
Growing up in Salzburg, Austria, surrounded by the Alps and a culture more associated with skiing than striking, Stella Hemetsberger tried everything. Gymnastics, football, climbing, hiking, skiing, and more. She was the kind of kid who needed to move, to compete, to test herself against new challenges.
At 13, she walked into RS-GYM, a martial arts facility close to her home, expecting to add Muay Thai to her list of activities.
She had no way of knowing that this would be different from all the rest, that fourteen years later she'd be Austria's first-ever ONE World Champion. Or that on February 13 at ONE Fight Night 40 in Bangkok, Thailand, she'd challenge Jackie Buntan for the ONE Strawweight Kickboxing World Title in pursuit of something even rarer – two-sport glory.
What started as another sport to try became the path that would define her life.
The foundation was laid long before she threw her first punch, in a loving family that understood the value of dedication and the power of encouragement.
"The lessons I have learned both from my mom and dad from a young age are that I just have to be disciplined and work hard to achieve my goals," Hemetsberger reflected, describing the principles that would carry her from an athletic teenager to the pinnacle of women's Muay Thai.
That combination – natural athleticism from trying every sport imaginable and the discipline instilled by her parents – created the perfect bedrock for martial arts.
When she entered RS-GYM for the first time, something clicked in a way it never had with gymnastics, football, or any of the other activities she'd explored.
"I felt like I was picking up things quite quickly. From learning combinations to punching or kicking, it just felt as if it was something I had been doing for quite a while," she recalled, describing the rare experience of finding the thing you were always meant to do without knowing you were searching for it.
Her coaches, Roland Schwarz and Christin Fiedler, recognized immediately that they had something special.
But talent and work ethic alone don't guarantee smooth sailing, especially in a sport like Muay Thai where experience often trumps physical gifts. Hemetsberger's early amateur career became a crucible that would either forge her into a champion or convince her to return to the safer pursuits of her youth.
"I was always fighting a lot more experienced opponents. I had a lot of losses at the beginning of my amateur career. But I just took it as a motivation to get better and to train harder," she explained, determined to get better.
Those early losses could have broken her. Many talented fighters walk away after tasting defeat after defeat, convinced they're not cut out for the brutality of combat sports. But Hemetsberger saw losses not as verdicts but as information, data points showing her exactly what she needed to improve.
The transition to professional fighting brought its own challenges. Amateur competition, no matter how serious, still exists in a protected space. Professional fighting is different. It's your livelihood, your identity, and the real test of whether all the sacrifice and training translate to success at the highest level.
"Before my first professional fight, without a doubt, I was very nervous. But the moment I tasted the first fight professionally, I knew this was going to be it for me," Hemetsberger shared, describing the clarity that comes when you find your calling.
From the mountains of Austria to the global stage of ONE Championship, Hemetsberger has proven that greatness doesn't require the perfect background or the traditional path. It requires discipline, hard work, resilience in the face of losses, and the courage to pursue what you're meant to do once you discover it.
