Ivett Gonda (born April 28, 1986 in

Jászberény Jászberény is a city and market centre in Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county in Hungary. Location Jászberény is located in central Hungary, on the Zagyva River, a tributary of the Tisza River. It is about from Budapest. History The oldest a ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

) is a Hungarian-born

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

retired

taekwondo ''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast kicking techniques. T ...

competitor. She moved to Canada when she was four. From 1995 to mid 2013 Gonda competed professionally for Canada until she decided to compete for her native country,

. Though currently competing for another nation, Ivett still continues to train and live in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Career

She began taekwondo in 1995. She was the second Canadian ever to make the Olympic team in 2004. She finished in fifth place at the 2003 World Championships in

Garmisch-Partenkirchen Garmisch-Partenkirchen (; Bavarian: ''Garmasch-Partakurch''), nicknamed Ga-Pa, is an Alpine ski town in Bavaria, southern Germany. It is the seat of government of the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen (abbreviated ''GAP''), in the O ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

in the Finweight-47 kg event.

2008 Summer Olympics

Gonda is part of the three member Canadian Olympic team at the Summer Olympic Games in Taekwondo along with

Karine Sergerie Karine Sergerie (born February 1, 1985) is the 2007 world champion in women's lightweight (under 63 kg) taekwondo. She is Canada's first female world champion in the sport. Biography Sergerie was born in Sainte-Catherine, Quebec, Canada. ...

Sébastien Michaud Sébastien Michaud (born May 7, 1987) started in taekwondo at the age of five, following in his father's and brothers footsteps. Born in Joliette, Quebec, he currently resides in Quebec City, Quebec where he studies software engineering at Univer ...

. On August 20, 2008 Gonda faced Hanna Zajc of Sweden in her first bout at the Beijing olympics and lost 2-0 in a controversial upset. The outcome of the match stirred immediate controversy as Gonda had landed numerous strikes which were arguably scoring blows including a clear head-shot that knocked down Zajc and would have given Gonda 2 points had it been accepted by the judges. Gonda's coach, Shin Wook Lim protested during and after the match, but was ignored by judges who refused interviews and comments through intermediaries. Lim has suggested that Lei Zhao, a Chinese judge, one of four judges scoring the match, and head of the Chinese Taekwondo federation intentionally ignored Gonda's scoring to see the 33rd ranked Zajc advance to face a Chinese competitor in the next round instead of Gonda, widely reported as a medal contender prior to the bout and ranked 3rd in the world. Olympic taekwondo uses electronic clickers to tally points. Three of four judges must click in a point within a short interval for points to be tallied. Thus any conspiracy of two is sufficient to nullify any points scored. In conclusion, she still lost.

Continued career

Gonda was a participant at the

2011 Pan American Games The 2011 Pan American Games, officially the XVI Pan American Games, was an international multi-sport event that was held from October 14–30, 2011, in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Some events were held in the nearby cities of Ciudad Guzmán, ...

where she won a gold medal in the competition and so did Olivier Pineau (heayweight division) and Melanie Phan(fly weight division).

Career Highlights

*2007 Pan American Games: Bronze *2007 World Championship: 9th *2006 Canadian Senior National Championships: Gold *2006 Senior Pan American Championship: Bronze *2005 Canadian Senior National Championships: Gold *2005 World Championship: 5th *2004 Canadian Senior National Championships: Gold *2004 Pan-American Championships: Gold *2004 Olympic Games: 5th *2003 Canadian Senior National Championships: Gold *2003 World Taekwondo Championships: 5th

Awards

*Named Most Valuable Player at the 2002 Junior National Championships and the 2006 Senior National Championships

References

*https://web.archive.org/web/20081012091103/http://www.combatcanada.ca/forum/index.php?topic=27.0 *http://www.olympic.ca/EN/hopefuls/2007/taekwondo.html *https://web.archive.org/web/20121104202844/http://www.canada.com/topics/sports/beijing2008/story.html?id=752e85c7-478b-4661-8269-9f98ae5807c4 *http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/taekwondo/story/2008/08/19/f-olympics-taekwondo-gonda.html *http://www.tsn.ca/olympics/story/?id=246955&lid=headline&lpos=secStory_main *http://olympics.thestar.com/2008/article/481950

External links