The Fighter
Lauren Burns is a third dan black belt and competed internationally for over seven years.
After growing up without much involvement in sport it was a surprise to Lauren's friends when she took up taekwondo at the age of fourteen. Enthusiasm to attend her first lesson was spurred on by her brother Michael who started at age seven motivated to learn the skills of the '80's craze "The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles". Lauren, Michael and their father Ronnie all attended regular classes but it was Lauren that got a taste for the competitive side of taekwondo.
Lauren's focus and determination strengthened as her desire to become a better taekwondo player grew. In 1994 taekwondo was announced as an Olympic sport and Korean coach Jintae Jeong was appointed National coach. Although Lauren had been on many national teams her commitment to the sport became paramount with this announcement.
She trained 5-7 hours each day with the goal of making the Olympic team in the -49kg class strong in mind. However this goal changed over time and with medal success on the world circuit, Lauren's dream became that of Olympic gold.
At the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, Lauren Burns was the first ever gold medal winner in the sport of taekwondo.
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