SEOUL, Korea (Aug 7, 2023) - Athletes, including an Olympic medallist and World Champion, and coaches from Spain’s Hankuk International School today met with World Taekwondo President Chungwon Choue at the World Taekwondo headquarters in Seoul ahead of competing in upcoming events in Korea.
Those in attendance included Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Adriana Cerezo of Spain, recent Baku 2023 World Champion Luana Marton of Hungary and her twin sister Viviana Marton, and Spain’s Tashkent 2019 Cadet Championships bronze medallist Elsa Hernández. They were joined by Sofía García, Laura Rodríguez, Marta Calvo, Lena Moreno and Iker Abad from Spain and Sebastián Tan of Malaysia.
The Hankuk International School is based in Madrid and Taekwondo Olympian Suvi Mikkonen from Finland and Jesus Ramal coach the athletes. Mikkonen and Ramal accompanied the athletes during the visit to the World Taekwondo headquarters.
Mikkonen retired from competing in 2021 having almost competed at Tokyo 2020 after qualifying via the European tournament. She competed at Rio 2016 and London 2012 as well as six World Championships and 10 Grand Prix. Mikkonen is currently a member of the World Taekwondo Coaches Committee and was selected by the World Taekwondo For All Committee to participate in the Women in Sport High Performance Pathway (WISH) leadership programme for 21 months with the support of Olympic solidarity funding. WISH aims to help 100 women coaches develop their leadership skills, confidence and careers and was set up to address the gender imbalance in coaches at the Olympic Games.
World Taekwondo President Chungwon Choue said:
“We are delighted to welcome the athletes and coaches from the Hankuk International School to the World Taekwondo Headquarters. The Hankuk International School has had great success in developing Taekwondo champions and great credit must be paid to its coaches.”
Coach Mikkonen expressed her gratitude to the President for the recommendation of her participation in the WISH programme and stated her high expectations of the course.
Following the visit to the headquarters, the athletes will participate in the 2023 Chuncheon Korea Open International Taekwondo Championships on 11-12 August.
