Jesper Roesen (born May 2, 1975 in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

) is a retired Danish

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 ...

practitioner, who competed in the men's featherweight category. Considering one of Europe's top taekwondo players in his own division, Roesen held three European titles (1996, 1998, and 2005), obtained two silver medals at the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

(1999 and 2001), and represented his nation

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

. Throughout his sporting career, Roesen trained full-time for Hwarang Taekwondo Klub in

Rødovre Rødovre is a town in eastern Denmark, seat of the Rødovre Municipality, in the Region Hovedstaden. The town's population 1 January 2019 was 39,907, and in addition 145 persons had no fixed address, which made up a total of 40,052 in the municip ...

, under his personal coach and master Bjarne Johansen. Roesen began his taekwondo training with Master Kytu’s Hwarang Taekwondo Klub at fourteen years old. In 1996, Roesen's sporting career thrived with his first ever European title in

Helsinki, Finland Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city' ...

, and then continued to add one more in

Eindhoven, Netherlands Eindhoven () is a city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands, located in the southern Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Brabant of which it is its largest. With a population of 238,326 on 1 ...

two years later. Roesen also permitted a chance to represent his nation

at the

World Taekwondo Championships The World Taekwondo Championship is held every two years by World Taekwondo. Competitions 1 Wuxi, China, was originally selected to host the 2021 World Taekwondo Championships. Due to the impact of the Global COVID-19 pandemic, Wuxi gave up ...

, where he placed second behind South Korea's No Hyun-goo in 1999 and U.S. fighter

Steven López Steven López (born November 9, 1978) is an American taekwondo competitor, a 2000 and 2004 Olympic gold medalist (in the -68 and -80 kg divisions, respectively) and a 2008 Olympic bronze medalist (again in the -80 kg division) and 4th ...

in 2001. At the

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

, Roesen qualified for the Danish squad in the men's featherweight class (68 kg), by registering his entry and placing third from the European Olympic Qualifying Tournament in

Baku, Azerbaijan Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world an ...

. Roesen got off to a flying start with a seamless 11–10 victory over Argentina's two-time Olympian Alejandro Hernando, before ending his Olympic debut by hopelessly losing the quarterfinal match 11–13 to South Korea's Song Myeong-seob. In 2005, Roesen brought home his third gold medal in the final against Dutch fighter

Tommy Mollet Tommy Mollet (born 29 March 1979 in Tilburg) is a Dutch taekwondo practitioner. He competed in the 80 kg event at the 2012 Summer Olympics; after defeating Abdelrahman Ahmed in the preliminary round, he was eliminated by Arman Yeremyan ...

at the European Championships in

Riga, Latvia Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Bal ...

, marking the end of his illustrious, fifteen-year-old taekwondo career.

References

External links

* * * * 1975 births Living people Danish male taekwondo practitioners Olympic taekwondo practitioners of Denmark Taekwondo practitioners at the 2004 Summer Olympics World Taekwondo Championships medalists European Taekwondo Championships medalists Sportspeople from Copenhagen 20th-century Danish people 21st-century Danish people {{Denmark-taekwondo-bio-stub