Omar Gergely Salim (born 12 April 2003) is an American-Hungarian

taekwondo ''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean martial arts, Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast k ...

athlete. He is the youngest son of

Gergely Salim Gergely Salim (born April 1, 1972 in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania) is a Hungarian- Danish taekwondo practitioner, but lives now in Los Angeles as an American citizen. He is the father of the Tanzanian-American taekwondoka Omar Salim. Career He ...

, a former Olympic champion. He became a Hungarian citizen in 2022.

Career

He won the gold medal at the

2021 European Taekwondo Championships The 2021 European Taekwondo Championships, the 24th edition of the European Taekwondo Championships, was held in Sofia, Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Sou ...

men's 54 kgs. A month later, he qualified to the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

through the

2021 European Taekwondo Olympic Qualification Tournament The 2021 European Taekwondo Olympic Qualification Tournament for the Tokyo Olympic Games took place in Sofia, Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Euro ...

. At the Taekwondo event of the Tokyo Olympics he was not able to go beyond the preliminary round.

Personal life

He was born to a Tanzanian father and a Hungarian mother. The youngest son of former Olympic, world and european champion

. His uncle Joseph Salim, was also a 6-time European medalist. His brother and training partner, Shariff Salim, was Pan American Junior champion in 2019, alongside him. One of his main supporters and sponsors is

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

Zlatan Ibrahimović Zlatan Ibrahimović (, ; born 3 October 1981) is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a striker for club AC Milan and the Sweden national team. Ibrahimović is renowned for his acrobatic strikes and volleys, powerful long-range sho ...

, as he used to train with master

at his dojang Salim's Taekwondo Center in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

. Zlatan played for LA Galaxy from 2018 to 2019 and was always passionate about taekwondo.

References

External links

* American male taekwondo practitioners Living people 2003 births European Taekwondo Championships medalists Sportspeople from Los Angeles County, California Taekwondo practitioners at the 2020 Summer Olympics African-American people African-American mixed martial artists {{US-taekwondo-bio-stub Hungarian male taekwondo practitioners Olympic taekwondo practitioners of Hungary 21st-century American people 21st-century Hungarian people World Taekwondo Championships medalists