Sara-Lynne Knockwood is a Canadian taekwondo athlete and a band member of Nova Scotia’s Indian Brook First Nation. She was raised in

Enfield, Nova Scotia Enfield is an urban community located north of Halifax Stanfield International Airport in the Shubenacadie Valley on the border of Hants and Halifax counties in Nova Scotia, Canada. Specifically, Enfield exists in both the East Hants Munic ...

with her two sisters by her father Ron and her mother Jennifer. She won gold medals in the 2002

North American Indigenous Games The North American Indigenous Games is a multi-sport event involving indigenous North American athletes staged intermittently since 1990. The Games are governed by the North American Indigenous Games Council, a 26-member council of representatives ...

(NAIG) in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She was inducted into

Miꞌkmaq The Mi'kmaq (also ''Mi'gmaq'', ''Lnu'', ''Miꞌkmaw'' or ''Miꞌgmaw''; ; ) are a First Nations people of the Northeastern Woodlands, indigenous to the areas of Canada's Atlantic Provinces and the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec as well as the nort ...

sports hall of fame in 2016 for her achievements in taekwondo.

Taekwondo

Knockwood was introduced to taekwondo by her father who was an

RCMP The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal and national police service of Canada. As poli ...

officer who encouraged Knockwood and her sisters to learn self defence. She first started training with David McKenna at McKenna’s Taekwondo club. Soon after she began training, Knockwood attended her first sanctioned

World Taekwondo Federation World Taekwondo, called the World Taekwondo Federation until June 2017, is an international federation governing the sport of taekwondo and is a member of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF). The ''World Taekw ...

tournament in Moncton, New Brunswick where she won gold. In 2002, Knockwood attended her first NAIG in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Knockwood won gold medals in the junior division of both sparring and poomse, while representing team Mi’kmaw Nova Scotia. In 2006, she attended the NAIG in Denver, Colorado, winning silver in sparring and gold in poomse, both in the senior division. Knockwood competed in the 6th World Open Championships Taekwondo international in Miami Beach, Florida. The event was hosted by the Taekwondo Association of Great Britain (TAGB) with teams representing Canada, US, South America, and Europe. Knockwood has also competed internationally at the

Pan Am Games The Pan American Games (also known colloquially as the Pan Am Games) is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas featuring summer sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The competition is held ...

NAIG awards

* 2002 NAIG won gold in sparring junior division in Winnipeg, Manitoba * 2002 NAIG won gold in poomse junior division in Winnipeg, Manitoba * 2006 NAIG won silver in sparring senior division in Denver, Colorado * 2006 NAIG won gold in poomse senior division in Denver, Colorado

Tom Longboat Award

Knockwood was awarded the

Tom Longboat Award The Tom Longboat Awards were established in 1951 to recognize Aboriginal athletes "for their outstanding contributions to sport in Canada" and continues "to honour Indigenous athletes across Canada" annually. As a program of the Aboriginal Sport ...

in 2002 at the national level.

After competition

After competition, Knockwood attained a human kinetics degree at

St. Francis Xavier University St. Francis Xavier University is a public undergraduate liberal arts university located in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is a member of the Maple League, a group of primarily undergraduate universities in Eastern Canada. History St. Franc ...

. Knockwood is currently working with the Mi’kmaq sport council of Nova Scotia regarding sport, recreation and health in

Mi’kmaq The Mi'kmaq (also ''Mi'gmaq'', ''Lnu'', ''Miꞌkmaw'' or ''Miꞌgmaw''; ; ) are a First Nations people of the Northeastern Woodlands, indigenous to the areas of Canada's Atlantic Provinces and the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec as well as the northe ...

communities. In 2014, she was involved in the Halifax NAIG bid committee and has sat as a member of the board of directors with AthletesCAN and the Association of Canada’s National Team Athletes. She has been a standing member of the tripartite forums sport and recreation committee. Knockwood was also involved in opening a taekwondo club within her community in Nova Scotia.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kockwood, Sara-Lynne Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century First Nations people Canadian female taekwondo practitioners First Nations sportspeople Pan American Games competitors for Canada St. Francis Xavier University alumni Mi'kmaq people Sportspeople from Nova Scotia