Luis Alberto Noguera Urquia (born October 12, 1973 in

Caracas Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...

) is a Venezuelan taekwondo practitioner, who competed in the men's heavyweight category. He retrieved a bronze medal in the 83-kg division at the

1993 World Taekwondo Championships The 1993 World Taekwondo Championships were the 11th edition of the World Taekwondo Championships, and were held in New York City, United States from August 19 to August 21, 1993, with 669 athletes participating from 83 countries. The success of ...

New York City, New York New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, clinched the gold at the

1999 Pan American Games The 1999 Pan American Games, officially the XIII Pan American Games or the 13th Pan American Games, was a major international multi-sport event that was held from July 23 to August 8, 1999, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and surrounding towns and ...

Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

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 ...

, and represented his nation

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

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), ...

. Noguera emerged himself on Venezuela's sporting fame at the

, where he edged Mexico's

Rodrigo Martínez Rodrigo Martínez ( la, Rudericus Martini) (died July 1138) was a Leonese nobleman, landowner, courtier, military leader, governor, and diplomat, "the most powerful lay figure in the region of the western Tierra de Campos," who "emerges as far an ...

for the gold medal in the men's over-80 kg division. 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 ...

, Noguera qualified for the Venezuelan squad in the men's heavyweight class (+80 kg), by placing third and granting a berth from the World Olympic Qualifying Tournament in

Paris, France Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. He crashed out early in the opening round by a marginal 5–8 decision to a lanky 6-foot-6 Moroccan fighter

Abdelkader Zrouri Abdelkader Zrouri (born September 20, 1976) is a Moroccan Taekwondo athlete. Zrouri competed in the men's +80 kg class at the 2008 Summer Olympics held in Beijing, China. In the preliminary round, he landed an axe kick (''naeryeo cha ...

. Following Zrouri's immediate defeat to Greek crowd favorite

Alexandros Nikolaidis Alexandros Nikolaidis (17 October 1979 – 14 October 2022) was a Greek taekwondo athlete. He was named the 2008 Greek Male Athlete of the Year. Initially the home favorite, he won the silver medal at the 2004 Olympics held in At ...

in the quarterfinals, Noguera denied his chance to proceed into the repechage bracket for the Olympic bronze medal.

References

External links

* 1973 births Living people Venezuelan male taekwondo practitioners Olympic taekwondo practitioners for Venezuela Taekwondo practitioners at the 2004 Summer Olympics Taekwondo practitioners at the 2007 Pan American Games Pan American Games gold medalists for Venezuela Sportspeople from Caracas Pan American Games medalists in taekwondo World Taekwondo Championships medalists Taekwondo practitioners at the 1999 Pan American Games Medalists at the 1999 Pan American Games 20th-century Venezuelan people 21st-century Venezuelan people {{Venezuela-taekwondo-bio-stub