US BOXER Quanitta “Queen” Underwood could become a very familiar name to Irish sports fans in the summer when she may well be the most difficult opponent Katie Taylor faces in her quest for Olympic gold in London.

Unlike Taylor, however, Queen Underwood has emerged as a contender for Olympic greatness from a background of sexual abuse and deprivation that could have sent her off on the wrong direction in life.

As she attempts to come through the US Olympic trials this week, Underwood and her sister, Hazzauna, have talked openly of the abuse they suffered at the hands of their father, Azzad, and the effect it has had on them.

In a remarkable feature on their lives, the New York Timesdiscovered the lengths Hazzauna went to protect her sister from her father's abuse and how ultimately they found the courage to confront him.

After her father was sentenced to seven years in jail, Queen Underwood found an outlet for her athleticism and anger in the sport of boxing. In 2010 she came within two points of beating Taylor in a World Championship semi-final in Barbados and now has the target of becoming the first US woman boxer to win a medal at the Olympics.