Safwan Khalil (born 15 May 1986 in

Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to: Cities and other geographic units Greece *Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

) is a

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 ...

athlete from Australia. He competed at the London Olympics in the 58 kg division, losing in a bronze medal match against

Alexey Denisenko Alexey Alexeyevich Denisenko (russian: Алексей Алексеевич Денисенко; born 30 August 1993) is a Russian taekwondo practitioner. He won a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympics in the 58 kg division and a silver at the 2016 Ri ...

. Born in

Tripoli, Lebanon Tripoli ( ar, طرابلس/ALA-LC: ''Ṭarābulus'', Lebanese Arabic: ''Ṭrablus'') is the largest city in northern Lebanon and the second-largest city in the country. Situated north of the capital Beirut, it is the capital of the North Gove ...

, he has lived in Australia since he was a child, attending

Lurnea High School --> , motto_translation = , location = Lurnea, South Western Sydney, New South Wales , country = Australia , coordinates = , pushpin_map = Australia Sydney , pushpin_image = , pushpin_mapsize = 250 , pushpin_map_alt = , pushpin_map_ ...

in south-western Sydney and training at his brother's gym, Global Martial Arts. His brother Ali Khalil, is also his coach, and the Australian Olympic coach for 2012., Khalil is engaged to fellow Olympic taekwondo athlete

Carmen Marton Carmen Marton (born 30 June 1986) is a taekwondo athlete from Australia. She is Australia's first ever world taekwondo champion. Marton is of Polish Australian descent, since her parents were born in Poland and came to Australia as refugees. ...

. The couple were married under Islamic law (but not under Australian civil law) prior to the London Olympics in 2012. Kahalil qualified for the Rio 2016 Olympics, which will be his second Olympics as a competitor. Khalil qualified for the

Tokyo 2020 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 ...

. In the men's 58 kg event in the round of 16, he lost to

Ramnarong Sawekwiharee Ramnarong Sawekwiharee (born December 18, 1996) is a Thai Taekwondo athlete who won two bronze medals at the 2015 World Taekwondo Championships and 2017 World Taekwondo Championships The 2017 World Taekwondo Championships was the 23rd editi ...

23-7 and therefore did not advance any further in the competition. Australia at the 2020 Summer Olympics details the results in depth.

References

External links

* 1986 births Living people Australian male taekwondo practitioners Olympic taekwondo practitioners of Australia Taekwondo practitioners at the 2012 Summer Olympics Taekwondo practitioners at the 2016 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from Tripoli, Lebanon Lebanese emigrants to Australia Sportspeople of Lebanese descent Australian Muslims Universiade medalists in taekwondo Universiade gold medalists for Australia Medalists at the 2011 Summer Universiade Taekwondo practitioners at the 2020 Summer Olympics 21st-century Australian people {{Taekwondo-bio-stub