Mourad Laachraoui (born 31 March 1995) is a Belgian taekwondo practitioner. He won a gold medal at the

2016 European Taekwondo Championships The 2016 European Taekwondo Championships was the 22st edition of the European Taekwondo Championships, and was held in Montreux, Switzerland, from May 19 to May 22, 2016.http://www.taekwondodata.com/resultlist_country.html?cid=senior&tnid=596 M ...

Career

Laachraoui won bronze medals at the Dutch and Belgian Open events in 2013. In 2015 Laachraoui won a silver medal in the finweight class at the Summer Universiade games after losing to Iran's Armin Hadipour Seighalani in the final. He finished fifth in the men's finweight at the

2015 World Taekwondo Championships The 2015 World Taekwondo Championships were the 22nd edition of the World Taekwondo Championships, and were held in Chelyabinsk, Russia from May 12 to May 18, 2015. The decision to award the games to Russia was made in 2013 as they out-voted bo ...

. He also won gold medals at the Israel, Fujairah and Alexandria Open tournaments and bronze medals at the Bosnia, Luxor and Swiss Opens. He won a gold medal in the

held in

Montreux Montreux (, , ; frp, Montrolx) is a Swiss municipality and town on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Alps. It belongs to the district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, and has a population of approximat ...

, Switzerland. In the final of the −54 kg division he defeated 18-year-old Spanish fighter Jesús Tortosa 6–3 to win the tournament. After his victory the Flemish taekwondo federation dubbed him "Europe's king of the lightweights". Laachraoui may be selected to compete at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

to be held in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, Brazil but he wasn't. The quota place for Belgian team in the men's 58 kg was originally earned by

Si Mohamed Ketbi Si Mohamed Ketbi (born 27 December 1997) is a Belgian taekwondo athlete. He represented his country at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, in the men's 58 kg. In 2017, he competed in the men's featherweight event at the 2017 World ...

via his world ranking position. However, Ketbi has struggled to maintain his weight and was unable to compete at the European Championships. The Belgian Taewkondo Federation is yet to decide between the three candidates that met the standard of being in the top 20 of the global Olympic 58 kg rankings; Laachraoui, ranked 15th, Ketbi, ranked 6th, and Salaheddine Bensaleh, ranked 18, are all eligible but Ketbi went in the end.

Personal life

Laachraoui was born on 31 March 1995. His brother

Najim Laachraoui Najm al-'Ashrāwī ( ar, نجم العشراوي, 18 May 1991 – 22 March 2016), also known as Abū Idrīs al-Baljīkī or Soufiane Kayal, was a Belgian-Moroccan Islamic militant loyal to the Islamic State and was one of two suicide bomber ...

was a

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

confirmed to be one of the two suicide bombers at the

Brussels Airport Brussels Airport, nl, Luchthaven Brussel, vls, Vliegpling Brussel, german: Flughafen Brüssel is an international airport northeast of Brussels, the capital of Belgium. In 2019, more than 26 million passengers arrived or departed at Bruss ...

in the

2016 Brussels bombings On 22 March 2016, two coordinated terrorist attacks in Brussels, Belgium were carried out by the Islamic State. Three coordinated suicide bombings occurred: two at Brussels Airport in Zaventem, and one at Maalbeek metro station on the Brussels m ...

. At a press conference following the bombings Mourad Laachraoui said that he was "scared and saddened" by what his brother had done and that "you don't choose your family." He did not have contact with his brother for years before the attack.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laachraoui, Mourad Belgian male taekwondo practitioners 1995 births Living people Belgian sportspeople of Moroccan descent People from Schaerbeek Universiade medalists in taekwondo Universiade silver medalists for Belgium European Taekwondo Championships medalists Medalists at the 2015 Summer Universiade Sportspeople from Brussels 21st-century Belgian people