Hayder Shkara (born 21 May 1990) is a former professional

Taekwondo ''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean martial arts, Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast k ...

athlete.

Early life

Shkara was introduced to martial arts at the age of 8, whilst living in Sydney. He entered the Australian national team in 2006. From 2009 to 2017, Shkara was on the Australian National Taekwondo team and competed at the 2009 World Taekwondo Championships,

2011 World Taekwondo Championships The 2011 World Taekwondo Championships was the 20th edition of the World Taekwondo Championships, and was held at Gyeongju Indoor Stadium in Gyeongju, South Korea from May 1 to May 6, 2011. Medal summary Men Women Medal table Team rank ...

2013 World Taekwondo Championships The 2013 World Taekwondo Championships was the 21st edition of the World Taekwondo Championships, and was held in Puebla (city), Puebla, Mexico from July 15 to July 21, 2013. Medal summary Men Women Medal table Team ranking Men ...

, 2015 World Taekwondo Championships and

2017 World Taekwondo Championships The 2017 World Taekwondo Championships was the 23rd edition of the World Taekwondo Championships, and was held in Muju, South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southe ...

. He attempted to gain selection to the

London 2012 Olympic Games The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

but failed to qualify, after a loss to Vaughn Scott. Shkara was part of the Australian team's successful run at the

2015 Pacific Games The 2015 Pacific Games, also known as Port Moresby 2015 or POM 2015, was held in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, from 4 to 18 July 2015. It was the fifteenth staging of the Pacific Games as well as the third to be hosted in Port Moresby. More tha ...

, winning a gold medal there and claiming three bronze medals at the 2015 Polish, Russian and Serbian Opens. At a rematch with Vaughn at an Oceania 2016 qualifying tournament, Shkara was victorious and secured entry to the 2016 Summer Olympics. Shkara said he was not particularly good at sport as a child, but fell in love with Taekwondo. When he succeeded at qualifying for the Olympics, he said the feeling was immense.

2016 Summer Olympics

Shkara's first match was against

Lutalo Muhammad Lutalo Muhammad (born 3 June 1991) is a British taekwondo athlete who represented Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Olympics, winning a bronze medal, and the 2016 Summer Olympics, winning a silver medal. He won the gold medal in the −87 ...

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

(the eventual silver medalist). He was defeated 14-0, and suffered a broken rib. Due to

making the finals, Shkara was given entry to a bronze medal match against the Steven Lopez (USA). After a sudden death round, Shkara was defeated on a count back of touches.

Career post-retirement

After retiring from professional Taekwondo, Shkara began work as a lawyer practicing in Australian family law. In 2017, he started his own law firm, Justice Family Lawyers in Sydney. In June 2022, Shkara acquired Melbourne based firm, Melbourne Family Lawyers, furthering the growth of his firm in the Victorian legal market. Shkara said that the client base at Justice Family Lawyers had been growing in the Melbourne market, leading to the opening of a Melbourne office in 2019. At that time, Justice Family Lawyers was “in a prime position” to acquire and grow Melbourne Family Lawyers. Shkara further expanded on his business growth by acquiring Walker Pender Group in Queensland in 2023. He has appeared on the Australian TV program

Insight Insight is the understanding of a specific cause and effect within a particular context. The term insight can have several related meanings: *a piece of information *the act or result of understanding the inner nature of things or of seeing intui ...

where he discussed prenuptial agreements with the studio audience.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shkara, Hayder Living people Australian male taekwondo practitioners Taekwondo practitioners at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic taekwondo practitioners for Australia 1990 births 21st-century Australian people Martial artists from Sydney Sportsmen from New South Wales