Linn Sandstrom: “I am not a world champion yet, but I am up there and I am being recognised for being a great athlete.”

Linn Sandstrom: “I am not a world champion yet, but I am up there and I am being recognised for being a great athlete.”

“A lost soul. Like a little puppy on the street with no food or water so I thought I would take her in.” Words said in jest but with more than a hint of truth. Tony Del Vecchio has been with Linn Sandstrom from the start of her boxing journey. The former international table tennis player started her life in Brazil, then moved to Sweden at an early age before settling in Australia and the country where her love for boxing started.

Del Vecchio, a veteran of the fight game was a little late joining us on our triple-threat Zoom call, someone like myself still navigating his way slowly around the frightening new world of technology. But once the correct buttons were pressed, maybe by chance, he relayed how Linn Sandstrom came into his life:

“The rent was too high in Waterloo so we moved to Bondi. Linn lived around the corner from the gym, she was looking for something to do and when we eventually got the gym built Linn was one of the first through the door. She started with a boxercise class, she then got herself a Personal Trainer and then she uttered those famous words, I want to be a fighter.”

It was a move well out of her comfort zone. Linn struggled initially in her new environment. But if any story is one of perseverance, it is hers. Linn was thrown in deep, a torrid introduction to her new sport. If her heart wasn’t in it, she would have quit long before her new life found any semblance of life.

“Raw doesn’t cut it. It was all alien to her,” Del Vecchio told me. “We later found out she was an athlete from an early age in Table Tennis. So her coordination from being an athlete was pretty good and she quickly picked things up. Linn got fit, she lost weight and it just grew. And to be honest we are still learning on the job. I got her some amateur fights and she lost her first three fights.”

There is a special bond between fighter and trainer. Evident even within a few minutes on Zoom. “You put me in with heavier and more experienced girls in those first three fights. When you matched me correctly I won.” Linn with a wry smile as she explains her side of those early setbacks. There is that much-needed banter between the pair. A serious sport like boxing needs a relationship to work. This partnership seems to be made of the right stuff. They appear to be on the same page. And the right path.

They have been through plenty. Boxing isn’t a sport of continuous highs. Those early defeats built character, and when the win finally came, it was a cause for celebration Del Vecchio said:

“When she won it was a great night and then the bug bit. We kept going and going and we got to around twenty-five fights and we then decided to turn professional.”

The decision to turn professional was made in some ways by the limited options open to Linn at the time. Without Australian citizenship, she was limited to what tournaments she could go in. Three fights in Sweeden during her amateur run were born out of those limitations in Australia. The professional career started off slowly, a virtual mirror of her humble amateur beginnings. At the end of 2021, Linn had an average-looking resume of only one win in four fights. Her talk of winning world titles looked like words of pure fantasy. But Linn never stopped believing and in the following twelve months, everything changed. Travelling the world Linn amassed six wins, including three wins in five weeks, fights in which Del Vecchio saw his fighter grow mentally and physically. A fighter still learning on the job, but improving her boxing IQ with every single sight. In simple terms, she was getting there.

“I am putting in a lot of sacrifices. Thirteen weeks overseas already this year alone and it’s only the beginning of June.” Linn points out. Her home is on the road, a fighter happy to be living out of a suitcase. But when Del Vecchio interrupts and points out they are not sacrifices but investments, you get a sense they are not pointless air miles. There is method to the madness.

After an active 2022, Linn has had to stay patient. A planned fight in March fell by the wayside on the day of the fight due to Visa complications and when she finally returned to action last month it ended in frustration after two rounds. Accidental headbutts ended her fight against Venezuela’s Johana Zuniga prematurely. Linn had to settle for a technical draw, but for Del Vecchio, he still liked what he saw:

“In her last fight, I call it a penny drop moment. It’s like when a footballer who has all the skills in the world and he puts it all together one day on the football pitch. And that’s what it was for us in that fight, all the perseverance came to the fore. Her eyes were wide open, she was super fit. Linn came to the seat at the end of the opening round and her heart rate didn’t go over 48 beats per minute. It was amazing. Linn countered, she reacted, she did everything she needed to do. It didn’t go on long enough for us to get the win, but at the end of the day we are still the WBA super-flyweight intercontinental champion and our next fight is going to be for the world title.”

Trainer was happy. Fighter also. Linn can see her improvements and also what is needed for what lies ahead:

“There are levels and the girl who I fought last time was up another level. And I just thank God for the girls I have been sparring with this year otherwise I wouldn’t have been prepared. I now realise just one centimetre wrong with your hands and they will clip you. I am more motivated than I have ever been.

“It was really frustrating but that’s boxing. It only went two rounds but I learned so much. I was just so in the zone and I could just see and read everything. I really needed those two rounds just so I can feel what will come next and we are just going to move on from here.”

There were frustrations for both. Del Vecchio feels he wasn’t allowed to work on the cut, and believed Linn would have won without the premature intervention.

Prior to her last fight, Linn had a world title seemingly locked in. She accepted the fight but then the offer was withdrawn. Despite Linn being more than willing to make that pivotal step on reflection, a short-notice fight at the top of the boxing food chain needs to be taken at the right time.

“I feel like the fight for the world title not happening was a blessing in disguise,” Linn says. “If I am going to go into a world title fight I don’t want to be just happy to be there. I am going into a world title fight to win it. I want to have a proper 8-10 week training camp. Even though we said yes, I don’t want a one-week or a two-week training camp.”

Linn is now the WBA 6th ranked super-flyweight contender and that maiden world title opportunity will arrive before the year ends. September is the target. Linn wants to fight before then, coach says no. Sign of trust and maturity. Sparring with world champions in America has given both the confidence their time is near. Del Vecchio believes his fighter will get what she needs in those tough behind-closed-doors sparring sessions:

“We don’t need to fight. The sparring we will do in LA are fights. Every single one of those spars are fights. They will give Linn so much more trouble than the opponent could ever give her. We’ll go back there in August for four weeks.”

The story of Linn Sandstrom is remarkable in many ways. Written off and ridiculed at the beginning of her boxing journey. The story has had many setbacks along the way, but Linn will now almost certainly be challenging for world honours in her very next fight.

Just how far she has come isn’t lost on Linn:

“When I hit number six in the world it was like wow. It’s just crazy and Tony has stood by me since the beginning. So many people doubted us at the beginning and the fact that we never gave up. I have been putting in the work to get here. When we had to travel elsewhere to train and people were doubting us we still showed up for training. There wasn’t one single day we missed training. I knew one day it would pay off and I told Tony one day I would have belts hanging off me. I am now ranked one of the top fighters in the world. All these great world champions are now following me, fighters like Chantelle Cameron, Natasha Jonas and Terri Harper it is such a great community. I am not a world champion yet, but I am up there and I am being recognised for being a great athlete.”