Presentation (7) (1)_clone

My
Inspirational

Sportsman

Lee Dae-hoon

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South Korean

Taekwondo Athlete

Full name :Lee Dae-hoon
Age :29 years old (2021)
Born :February 5 in Seoul,Korea
Height :183cm
Weight :68kg
Country :South Korea
Residence :Busan,South Korea
Club :Yongin University
Coach :Lee Joo Yeol

Biography

You could say Lee was born to be a taekwondo practitioner. His father, a
practitioner in his own right, ran a taekwondo academy, and young Lee
started attending when he was three or four years old.

“Instead of going to kindergarten, I was getting my child care at [my
parents’] taekwondo academy,” Lee says. “It started with running.”

Lee believes that running around the academy with his friends allowed
him to improve his physical strength at a very young age. As both his
parents worked there, Lee would be running around the academy playing
with his friends from the start of the first class until the end of the last
lesson.

But it wasn’t until he was around seven to eight years old that he started
to become interested in taekwondo.

“Since I was physically stronger, I think I became more aware [of the
sport] and I was able to show my talent more to my parents,” Lee says.
“Also, I think my strength allowed me to be better at taekwondo
compared to others my age or even a few years older than me.”

In third grade of elementary school, Lee competed for the first time, and
won. From this moment on, Lee's taekwondo career really began.

Lee's taekwondo career really began. Unlike a lot of athletes, Lee faced no
problems at home over his unconventional career choice. “Rather than me telling
them that I want to do it, my parents suggested I do it first,” Lee says. “I wasn’t in
an environment where people were against it. Instead, they’ve supported me to be
better and took care of me to become the best.” Turning pro In a country with so
many amateur taekwondo aficionados, the route to turning professional is a little
obscure. “When you go to taekwondo academy, or even if you don’t go there, if
you have great physical condition, coaches might suggest you take it seriously
and teach you more technical skills,” Lee says. “Or you might realize your own
potential and decide to take it more seriously yourself.” More than anything, Lee
says natural talent and having a good physical condition are the most important
things if you want to take taekwondo to the next level. If young practitioners show
that potential, then Lee explained they'll be encouraged to attend a middle and
high school that have a structured taekwondo team to get more professional
training. “So when you say you go to a taekwondo academy, you only train for an
hour or two, at most,” Lee says. “But if you attend a school that has a structured
taekwondo team, then they train more and get more professional training. The
training gets tougher.” From that environment, practitioners can start to compete at
local and national events, and maybe even earn a coveted spot on the Korean
national taekwondo team, which Lee has held for 11 years now. Once they join the
national team, taekwondo practitioners travel around the world to compete in
tournaments organized by World Taekwondo (WT) and earn ranking points.

At 28, Lee is already a well-established
practitioner, but he has a few years left in him
yet. In the short term, Lee's only goal is to
compete at the Olympics. He’s already won
silver and bronze, but is still chasing that gold.
Beyond that, Lee hopes to spend his career
sharing his talent with the next generation. “After
the Olympics, aside from being an athlete, I
want to study training methods and help develop
players,” Lee says. “I want to have more
professional knowledge so I can teach younger
athletes and develop another great player. Not
only in Korea, but I want to study another
language and do that internationally.”

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