SEOUL, Korea (25 November, 2019) - With the track to Tokyo 2020 getting shorter and shorter, the 2019 “Booyoung Dream Program” is taking place now from November 22 to December 3 in Muju, Korea.
The program, sponsored by Booyoung, offers athletes suffering from limited financial means the opportunity to come to Korea for best-of-breed Olympic preparation training.
This year’s athletes hail from 18 countries; the program aims at assisting them ahead of their respective Continental Qualification Tournaments. Among them are three refugee athletes, each holding an IOC Refugee Scholarship.
Kasra Mehdipournejad who's one of refugee athletes said.
"It is my dream to be a flag bearer of the Refugee Team in Tokyo 2020, and I want to win the medal as well. I thank WT for creating this great program which is really helpful for me. I hope the Booyoung Dream program last for a long time."
(For the information of participating athletes, please see table at bottom.)
Their program takes place at the WT Central Training Center, Muju Taekwondowon in cooperation with Taekwondo Promotion Foundation.
The Booyoung Dream Program has a legacy of success. A previous alumni of the program was Ahmad Abughaush, the athlete who went on to win gold in Rio in 2016, granting his country, Jordan, its first-ever Olympic medal.
Athletes on the program visited the WT Headquarters in Seoul on Nov. 25. World Taekwondo Peace Corps Foundation Secretary General Hyunsuk Shin also joined to encourage all athletes.
WT President Chungwon Choue said.
“It was a huge pleasure to meet these fine athletes in the midst of their Olympic preparations and I hope all of you achieve your dream. I am grateful to our global partner, Booyoung, for offering them this precious chance.”
Table: Participating athletes in 2019
|
No. |
Name | MNA | Gender | Remarks |
| 1 | Arnold Nkoy | DR Congo | Male | |
| 2 | Wandile Maziya | Eswatini | Male | |
| 3 | Seydou Fofana | Mali | Male | |
| 4 | Munirah Warsame Abdiwahid | Somalia | Female | |
| 5 | Admire Tshitshiliza | Zimbabwe | Male | |
| 6 | AItakhunov Akbar | Kyrgyzstan | Male | |
| 7 | Laetitia Aoun | Lebanon | Female | |
| 8 | Haroon Khan | Pakistan | Male | |
| 9 | Merab Shukakidze | Georgia | Male | |
| 10 | Kasra Mehdipournejad | Germany | Male | Refugee Athlete |
| 11 | Amir Mohammad Hosseini | Germany | Male | Refugee Athlete |
| 12 | Apostolos Telikostoglou | Greece | Male | |
| 13 | Patrik DIVKOVIC | Slovenia | Male | |
| 14 | Seyed Ehsan Naghibzadeh | Switzerland | Male | Refugee Athlete |
| 15 | Jorge Gonzalez | Andorra | Male | |
| 16 | Alexander Allen | Guam | Male | |
| 17 | Fernanda Aguirre | Chile | Female | |
| 18 | Brandon Sealy | Jamaica | Male | |
| 19 | David Robleto Chamorro | Nicaragua | Male |
