Carmen Marton

Carmen Marton (born 30 June 1986[3]) is a taekwondo athlete from Australia. She is Australia's first ever world taekwondo champion.

Carmen Marton
Personal information
Born (1986-06-30) 30 June 1986
Melbourne, Australia[1][2]
Height1.72 m (5 ft 8 in)
Medal record
Women's Taekwondo
Representing  Australia
World Championships
2013 PueblaLightweight
2005 MadridLightweight
Summer Universiade
2011 ShenzhenLightweight
Pacific Games
2015 Port MoresbyLightweight

Marton is of Polish Australian descent, since her parents were born in Poland[4] and came to Australia as refugees.[5] Her parents, siblings and partner[6] have all been taekwondo athletes.[7]

Career

As a junior, Marton achieved a number of international benchmark results:

  • She won silver at both the 2001 and 2003 Junior Asian Championships.
  • At the age of 14 she became the youngest athlete from Australia to win selection on a senior National Team when she took part in the Taekwondo World Cup in Vietnam.[8]
  • At the age of 15 she secured a spot on her first senior National Team competing at the 2001 World Championships in Jeju, Korea.
  • In 2002, at the age of 16 she won a silver medal at the World Cup in Tokyo, Japan in the <59 kg category.
  • In 2004, she won a bronze at the Asian Championships Seoul Korea in the <63 kg category.
  • Missing out on the 2004 Athens Olympics, she backed her disappointment with a bronze medal at the 2005 World Taekwondo Championships in the Lightweight (up to 63 kg) division.
  • Marton then won a Bronze at the Olympic Test event in 2007 in the +67 kg weight category.

She has also competed in the 2007 World Taekwondo Championships competing in the bantamweight and welterweight, winning two fights, the 2009 World Taekwondo Championships finishing in the round of 16, and the 2011 World Taekwondo Championships in the lightweight division, losing to Marina Sumić in the quarter finals [9]

Marton secured a bronze at the 2011 Universiade Games in Shenzhen, China. In September 2011 she secured the under 67 kg division for Australia at the Oceania Olympic Qualification Tournament. She won, and competed in the 2008 Olympics in the +67 kg category, losing to Natália Falavigna in the quarterfinals.

Marton won the women's lightweight gold medal at the 2013 World Taekwondo Championships,[10] becoming Australia's first ever world taekwondo champion,[11] after breaking the tied scores and defeating Korean Kim Huy Lan with just 4 seconds left on the clock.[12]

Marton, her partner, brother and sister all won Gold in taekwondo at the 2015 Pacific Games.[13]

Carmen qualified for the Rio Olympics,[14] which will be her third Olympics[15] as a competitor.

Personal

Marton is engaged[16] to fellow Olympic taekwondo athlete Safwan Khalil,[17] whom she met while she was a teenager.[18] The pair were Australia's only taekwondo representatives at the 2012 Summer Olympics, where Marton narrowly missed out on winning a bronze medal.[19] Marton was born and raised a Catholic, but converted to Islam in 2009.[20] She describes her conversion as a natural progression: "[The] stories are the same [which] was really surprising to me".[21]

Marton's father is a Polish taekwondo exponent[22] and introduced her to the sport.[23] She has a brother, Jack, and sister, Caroline Marton, who are also her training partners and whom she describes as world-class athletes.[24]

She has a Bachelor of Exercise and Sport Science degree from Deakin University[25][26] and was a former state volleyballer.[27] Her personal motto is ‘hard work and ambition overtake natural ability.’[28]

References
  1. "Ramadan making things tough for taekwondo pair Safwan Khalil and Carmen Marton". Herald Sun. News Limited. 15 July 2012. Retrieved 26 July 2014.
  2. "Carmen Marton". Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS). Archived from the original on 10 August 2014. Retrieved 26 July 2014.
  3. "Carmen Marton". Victorian Institute of Sport. Archived from the original on 16 February 2011. Retrieved 20 March 2011.
  4. David Polkinghorne (20 June 2014). "Carmen Marton and Safwan Khalil using pain of London to taekwondo to Rio". Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 26 July 2014.
  5. Glenn Osborne (4 February 2014). "Aussie Taekwondo hopeful looks towards Rio Olympics". SBS. Retrieved 26 July 2014.
  6. "Daily Telegraph".
  7. "The Australian family fighting for Taekwondo gold in Rio". SBS. 19 January 2016. Retrieved 1 February 2016.
  8. "Carmen Marton Taekwondo". The Martial Arts. 22 April 2014. Archived from the original on 28 July 2014. Retrieved 26 July 2014.
  9. Brown, Alex (23 August 2008). "Carmen Marton misses out on semis". The Age. Retrieved 20 March 2011.
  10. Adaimy, Roje. "Marton becomes taekwondo world champion". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 13 August 2013.
  11. http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2013/07/22/marton-becomes-taekwondo-champion Marton becomes taekwondo champion
  12. http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/02/04/aussie-taekwondo-hopeful-looks-towards-rio-olympics Aussie Taekwondo hopeful looks towards Rio Olympics
  13. Philip Ly (21 August 2015). "Taekwondo power couple win gold before Olympics". Liverpool Leader. News Limited. Retrieved 1 February 2016.
  14. "Four taekwondo athletes set to represent Australia in Rio". rio2016.olympics.com.au. Archived from the original on 17 July 2016. Retrieved 2 March 2016.
  15. "Carmen Marton". rio2016.olympics.com.au. Archived from the original on 25 February 2017. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
  16. Sharwood, Anthony (3 June 2016). "Rio Olympics: Meet Safwan Khalil and Carmen Marton, The Glamour Couple of Australia's Rio 2016 Team". Huffington Post. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
  17. "A Fighting Couple - Carmen Marton & Safwan Khalil". Gold 104.3. Archived from the original on 8 May 2013. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
  18. http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/02/04/aussie-taekwondo-hopeful-looks-towards-rio-olympics Aussie Taekwondo hopeful looks towards Rio Olympics
  19. Gillian Tan (2 August 2012). "2012 Olympic Profiles: Australia Taekwondo". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 26 July 2014.
  20. Colman, Mike (15 July 2012). "Ramadan making things tough for taekwondo pair Safwan Khalil and Carmen Marton". Herald Sun. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
  21. http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/02/04/aussie-taekwondo-hopeful-looks-towards-rio-olympics Aussie Taekwondo hopeful looks towards Rio Olympics
  22. Alex Brown (23 August 2008). "Carmen Marton misses out on semis". Fairfax Digital. Retrieved 26 July 2014.
  23. Bianca Baliviera. "Carmen Marton: Australia's taekwondo queen". Blitz Martial Arts. Blitz Publications. Retrieved 26 July 2014.
  24. http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/02/04/aussie-taekwondo-hopeful-looks-towards-rio-olympics Aussie Taekwondo hopeful looks towards Rio Olympics
  25. "Carmen Marton". Archived from the original on 16 October 2012. Retrieved 21 August 2013.
  26. "Ms Carmen Marton". Archived from the original on 27 September 2013. Retrieved 21 August 2013.
  27. Alex Brown (23 August 2008). "Carmen Marton misses out on semis". Fairfax Digital. Retrieved 26 July 2014.
  28. Deakin Spirit. "Carmen Marton". Retrieved 26 July 2014.
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