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Moldova and Mongolia: Meet Olympic Taekwondo’s First Timers
Coaches of two of the nations whose athletes will be making their Olympic taekwondo debuts this summer have had very different experiences on their respective roads to Rio 2016.
Countries making their first appearances on the Rio competition mats will be Aruba, Belarus, Cape Verde, Moldova, Mongolia, D.R. Congo and Tonga. This number might be increased after decision of Tripartite Commission for wild cards. But while Moldova will be fielding one of taekwondo’s most famous fighters, coached by one of taekwondo’s most famous coaches, Mongolia is sending a virtual novice, under a coach making his own debut at the world’s greatest sporting event.
Moldovan superstar Aaron Cook is coached by Cote d’Ivorian native Patrice Remarck, while Mongolian neophyte Purevjdav Temuujin is coached by Korean national In-young Hur.
The Moldovan Taekwondo Federation is fully supporting the three-man team – fighter Aaron, Aaron’s brother Luke, who is taking on team management duties, and coach Remarck. Rio gold is a real possibility, Remark reckons.
Team Mongolia’s coach, Hur, had originally sought to find a nation which would be terra incognito. “I was looking for a country with no national team, so that I could start it off,” said Hur – who, like Remarck, was attending the camp at Taekwondowon. “I bought a map in a grocery store and started from that!”
Mongolia did not even have an Olympic taekwondo program until 2013, when it became part of the nation’s official sport curriculum. In fact, WTF taekwondo was virtually unknown in the nation until that year. Under Hur, it has made very fast progress.
His student Purevjdav Temuujin, who qualified Mongolia for its first Olympic taekwondo sport at the Asian qualification tournament, has a mere three years of taekwondo under his belt: A very, very short period indeed, given that many athletes in their 20s have been training since they were toddlers. Hur scouted talent from sports including running and riding, and found Temuujin on the sidelines of a taekwondo demonstration. Sensing potential, he asked him to do a few kicks. “I saw he had strength and flexibility,” he said.
Taekwondo’s profile in Mongolia is now rising, with the government funding it after a medal win at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games and increasing numbers of beginners taking up training. “The athletes are getting into the media,” Hur said. “And the national team and the coaches recently met Mongolia’s vice president.”
Whether Hur and Remarck’s respective charges will win medals in Rio is, of course, impossible to predict. But the very fact of qualifying for the pinnacle of athletic events is great news for both countries’ sporting establishments. It is also great news for taekwondo – proving that the sport’s global reach continues to expand.
Source: WTF
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