Laurence Rase (born 4 April 1977 in

Mons Mons (; German and nl, Bergen, ; Walloon and pcd, Mont) is a city and municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the province of Hainaut, Belgium. Mons was made into a fortified city by Count Baldwin IV of Hainaut in the 12th century. T ...

, Hainaut,

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

) is a female

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 from

. She is a two-time heavyweight medalist 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 ...

and won the 2006 European Championship in heavyweight. Rase is so far the only Belgian female taekwondo practitioner to win a medal at the World Championships. Rase is so far the only Belgian taekwondo athlete to compete at the Olympics as well. She competed in 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), ...

but was eliminated in the quarterfinals by losing to

Natália Falavigna Natália Falavigna da Silva (born May 9, 1984 in Maringá''Guia do Pan – XV Jogos Pan-Americanos''. Rio de Janeiro: Lance!, 2007) is a taekwondo athlete from Brazil. She finished in the fourth place in the women's 67-kilogram category in taekw ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

8–4. Rase has been serving as the Performance Director of the Flemish Taekwondo Union since 2010.

External links

*Profile fro
Sports-Reference
1977 births Living people Belgian female taekwondo practitioners Taekwondo practitioners at the 2004 Summer Olympics Olympic taekwondo practitioners for Belgium Summer World University Games medalists in taekwondo FISU World University Games bronze medalists for Belgium European Taekwondo Championships medalists World Taekwondo Championships medalists Medalists at the 2005 Summer Universiade Sportspeople from Mons 21st-century Belgian women {{Belgium-taekwondo-bio-stub