Dominique Bosshart won the bronze medal in women's taekwondo at the 2000 Sydney Olympics beating out athletes from Finland, Venezuela and Croatia. She was the only Canadian competitor in the sport at the Games. She is back in Athens to do even better. It's been quite a ride to the top for Bosshart who had to be talked into signing up for the sport by her brother at age 13.
She competed at her first world championships at age 15 back in 1993 and has won 11 straight national titles in the 67 kilos heavyweight category. At 15, she also convinced her parents that she could move from Landmark to Winnipeg and live on her own in order to train with Master Kang at Kang's Taekwondo Academy.
She is a very aggressive and relatively fast fighter who likes the excitement of competing. She says she is more successful attacking rather than counter-attacking. One of Bosshart's favourite moves is a 360-degree kick to the opponent's head in which she wheels full circle on one leg and kicks with all her force: a roundhouse kick.
She qualified for the Athens Olympics in her final opportunity this past January in Mexico.
She'll train in South Korea, the birthplace of the sport, in June and July.
