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Alex Bachmann, Muju Gold Medalist
August 2017
As a “sports soldier” in the German Army – i.e. an elite athlete funded and trained by the state – Alex Bachmann trains to win. But at the 2017 World Taekwondo Championships in Muju, Korea, he had another mission: To get even with his fiancée – fellow German international "Rabia Gulec".
“She had a bronze from the 2013 Puebla World Championships and she was an Olympian, and she made fun of me,” he said. “She had a medal – I did not have a medal!”
That changed on the evening of June 29 at the 2017 World Taekwonodo Championships in Muju.
He did. Bachmann rose through the ranks, and won a prestigious placing in the German Army as an athlete and soldier. His first big win was gold at the Belgian Open in 2011, followed by silver at the 2014 European Championships, and silver at the Military World Games in 2015. The latter win – in Mungyeong, Korea – gave him a good feeling for the 2017 Worlds. “I like to fight in Korea,” he said. “I don’t know if it is a good atmosphere for me, but everything here is perfect for me.”
In Muju the result against Trajkovic indicated that the 22-year-old Stuttgart native was not only an elite-level player, but had clearly mastered the new rules instituted at the start of 2017: His close-range kicks and clinch game looked first rate. “For me, it is easier to kick to the body than to the head, and the new system is two points for body,” Bachmann said. “And they made the new rules with the pushing, and I think for me it is very good, I like this style, it was not hard for me to change.”
Like most current-generation taekwondo stars, Bachmann’s sights are set on Tokyo 2020. “I will try my best to be in Tokyo, and after Tokyo – if I make it – I will look to either practice taekwondo or do something else,” he said. “I don’t know where my road will go after taekwondo; it is open, I think much can happen.”
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