Tina Michelle Tanrıkulu (née Morgan, born 10 August 1982) is an Australian

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 ...

coach and former international competitor.Australian Olympic Committee: Tina Tanrikulu (nee Morgan)
(''c.'' 2009). Retrieved on 21 April 2010. She represented her country at the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics, placing fifth in the latter competition. In 2006, Morgan became the first Australian taekwondo competitor to win a World Cup title. She started working as a coach for Turkish taekwondo club Ankaragücü in 2011.

Early life

Morgan was born on 10 August 1982 in

Townsville Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 180,820 as of June 2018, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland; it is unofficially considered its capital. Estimated resident population, 3 ...

, Queensland, Australia. She moved to

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

as a child and completed her secondary schooling at Woodvale Senior High School. She recalls first having been inspired to become an Olympic athlete when watching the weightlifting competition at the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

. Originally, she had planned to compete in gymnastics, but was told she would grow too tall; she then tried other sports. In 1994, Morgan was inspired to begin training in taekwondo after watching her brother training in the martial art at the local gymnasium. During her school years, she was also a Western Australian state champion in competitive aerobics, as well as playing

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

, netball, and tennis. Morgan earned a tertiary diploma in tourism management in Victoria and a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology from the

University of Southern Queensland The University of Southern Queensland (branded as UniSQ and formerly branded as USQ) is a medium-sized, regional university based in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, with three university campuses at Toowoomba, Springfield and Ipswich. It offe ...

. At national and international level, she trained in taekwondo at the

Western Australian Institute of Sport The Western Australian Institute of Sport (WAIS) is an elite sports institute set up in 1983 by the Government of Western Australia to support athletes in Western Australia. Previously, if elite athletes from Western Australian needed to train or ...

and the

Victorian Institute of Sport The Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS) is the government-funded sporting institute of the Australian state of Victoria. It provides high performance sports programs for talented athletes, enabling them to achieve national and international succe ...

. Her Olympic coaches have included Jin-Tae Jeong (from 2002 to 2004) and

Daniel Trenton Daniel Trenton (born March 1, 1977) is an Australian lawyer and taekwondo coach who represented his country in the sport at international level.

(from 2005 to 2008).

Competitive taekwondo career

Morgan was listed at 173 cm (5' 8") in height and 64 kg (141 lb.) in weight. 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), ...

in Athens (+67 kg) and the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

in Beijing (–67 kg). Morgan lost her first match in Athens against Brazilian athlete Natália Falavigna da Silva. In 2006, Morgan became the first Australian taekwondo athlete to win a World Cup Title and to be ranked Number 1 in the world in her division. Morgan managed to qualify for the 2008 Summer Olympics despite sustaining a major knee injury less than a year before Olympic Qualifications, with orthopaedic Surgeon Hayden Morris performing a repair operation using donor tissue to reduce recovery time.McArthur, G. (2007)
Tina Morgan set for 2008 Olympic Games tae kwon do
''Herald Sun'' (24 September 2007). Retrieved on 21 April 2010. The operation involved transplanting a deceased person's

patella The patella, also known as the kneecap, is a flat, rounded triangular bone which articulates with the femur (thigh bone) and covers and protects the anterior articular surface of the knee joint. The patella is found in many tetrapods, such as m ...

tendon A tendon or sinew is a tough, high-tensile-strength band of dense fibrous connective tissue that connects muscle to bone. It is able to transmit the mechanical forces of muscle contraction to the skeletal system without sacrificing its ability ...

into Morgan's knee. Her hopes of fighting for a gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics were dashed when she lost a third-round match to Canadian

Karine Sergerie Karine Sergerie (born February 1, 1985) is the 2007 world champion in women's lightweight (under 63 kg) taekwondo. She is Canada's first female world champion in the sport. Biography Sergerie was born in Sainte-Catherine, Quebec, Canada ...

on decision.Anonymous (2008)
Tina Morgan cries foul after Beijing Olympics taekwondo loss
''The Australian'' (22 August 2008). Retrieved on 21 April 2010.Hinds, R. (2008)

''The Age'' (23 August 2008). Retrieved on 21 April 2010. Morgan eventually placed fifth after she lost the bronze medal match against French competitor

Gwladys Épangue Gwladys Patience Épangue (born 15 August 1983 in Clichy-la-Garenne, France) is a French taekwondo athlete. Representing France at the 2005 World Taekwondo Championships in Madrid, she won the silver medal in the welter ...

4–1.

Post-competition career

On 29 January 2009, Morgan married Turkish taekwondo competitor and Olympic silver medallist

Bahri Tanrıkulu Bahri Tanrıkulu (born March 16, 1980 in Ankara, Turkey) is a Turkish taekwondo practitioner, who competed in the Men's 80 kg division at the 2004 Summer Olympics held in Athens, Greece and won the silver medal. He studied at Akdeniz University ...

in Perth.Anonymous (2009)
Getting a kick out of marriage
''Community News'' (4 February 2009). Retrieved on 21 April 2010. At the time, Morgan said that she was looking forward to coaching future taekwondo competitors.

References

External links

Fox Sports: Tina Morgan
contains a photograph of Morgan (July 2008). * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Morgan, Tina 1982 births Living people Australian female taekwondo practitioners Olympic taekwondo practitioners for Australia Sportswomen from Western Australia Sportspeople from Townsville Taekwondo practitioners at the 2004 Summer Olympics Taekwondo practitioners at the 2008 Summer Olympics Victorian Institute of Sport alumni Western Australian Institute of Sport alumni University of Southern Queensland alumni Sportspeople from Perth, Western Australia World Taekwondo Championships medalists 20th-century Australian women 21st-century Australian women

Early life

Competitive taekwondo career

Post-competition career

See also

References

External links