Gwladys Épangue

Gwladys Épangue has always been a top class athlete. At eight years old, she was participating in track and field, basketball, tennis and volleyball. And while she showed promise in all those fields, it was as an eleven-year old that she found taekwondo as her true calling. Her passion for martial arts stars such as Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan inspired her to begin training for taekwondo at the La Courneuve Club.

Her talent as a martial artist was evident early on. By age sixteen, Gwaldys captured the silver medal at the senior European Championships. She quickly followed her European silver medal up with gold in 2002, 2004 and 2005. Along the way, she won seven straight French national titles.

Despite this winning streak, the Athens Olympics would end in disappointment for Gwladys. In a surprise defeat, Gwladys lost her opening match and just like that her Olympic dreams for 2004 were gone.

Discouraged but not defeated, Gwladys resumed training after the Olympics and worked towards replanting herself as one of the top martial artists in the world. A growth spurt of 10cm led her to move up weight categories, from -57kg to -67kg. In 2005, Gwladys won the World Championships silver medal in her new weight class, a feat she repeated two years later. With her 2004 disappointment behind her and two new world silver medals around her neck, Gwladys is eager to add a gold to her collection in this summer Beijing.