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Lethbridge taekwondo star makes international impact

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Lethbridge taekwondo star makes international impact
WATCH ABOVE: A Lethbridge taekwondo star is making waves internationally. Danica Ferris looks at the athlete's success on the world stage – May 8, 2019

A Lethbridge taekwondo star is making waves internationally; she was recently the most decorated Canadian athlete to come out of the ITF World Championships in Germany.

Eighteen-year-old Grace Holowiski collected three medals en route to Canada’s 15th overall finish on the world’s biggest stage, improving on the two-medal performance she had in Ireland in 2017.

“I got a silver medal in Team Specialty Breaking, a bronze medal in Individual Power Breaking and a bronze medal in Team Power Breaking,” Holowiski said.

“I started conditioning to compete internationally four years ago, and then I got overall Canadian female at the nationals,” she said. “Then I landed my spot on the team for Ireland, and then I went to [the] World Cup in Australia the following year, so I’ve done three competitions representing Canada so far.”

In those three competitions Holowiski has amassed seven medals, and her coach of nine years says that it isn’t necessarily a surprise.

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“[I] couldn’t have been happier with her results,” Brandi Merritt said. “She trains hard, works hard and she’s on a training schedule — she trains over three hours a day, six days a week to make sure that she can compete at that high level.”

And the level is about to get a little higher.

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READ MORE: Taekwondo club in Nova Scotia launches class for people with special needs

With her most recent birthday, Holowiski moves up into an adult division, where the competition gets even more difficult.

“It will be a new stage,” Merritt said. “We will have to change things a bit, but overall, she’s just been continuously growing as an athlete.

“Going forward, we’re going to be increasing her plyometrics to a new level. This worlds, I saw heights that I haven’t seen any athletes reach before, so it’s a big game change.”

Holowiski is elite in both power breaking and specialty breaking.

“Specialty breaking is kicks high up in the air – like jumping and hitting a board at a certain height,” Holowiski said. “Power breaking is techniques to break lots of boards.

“My best event is definitely my specialty breaking; it’s my favourite event. It’s part of the reason I joined taekwondo and she’s [Merritt] been conditioning me to be really good at it for a long time.”
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Next up is the Western Championships in Saskatoon, beginning May 17.

 

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