Rui Pedro Rebelo Bragança (born 26th December 1991) is a Portuguese

taekwondo Taekwondo (; ; ) is a Korean martial art and combat sport involving primarily kicking techniques and punching. "Taekwondo" can be translated as ''tae'' ("strike with foot"), ''kwon'' ("strike with hand"), and ''do'' ("the art or way"). In ad ...

practitioner who competes in the men's 58 kg (flyweight) category.

Career

Born in

Guimarães Guimarães () is a city and municipality located in northern Portugal, in the district of Braga. Its historic town centre has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001, in recognition for being an "exceptionally well-preserved ...

, Bragança started practising taekwondo with 13 years old, when he joined a class at Vitória de Guimarães gym. Two years later; he won the Portuguese National Junior Championships, which led to a spot at the European Junior Championships in

Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...

, where he won the bronze medal. In 2014, Bragança led the world ranking in his weight category. He graduated in

Medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

University of Minho The University of Minho (''Universidade do Minho'') is a public university in Minho Province, Portugal. It is divided into the following campuses: * Largo do Paço (rectorate), in Braga * Campus of Gualtar, in Braga * Convento dos Congregados, i ...

. In 2016 he signed with Benfica, along with his coach Hugo Serrão and his training partner Nuno Costa, all coming from Vitória de Guimarães. In 2019 he extended his contract for two more years with the main focus on the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

. He has qualified to the

through the

2021 European Taekwondo Olympic Qualification Tournament The 2021 European Taekwondo Olympic Qualification Tournament for the Taekwondo at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Tokyo Olympic Games took place in Sofia, Bulgaria. The tournament was held from 7 to 8 May, 2021. Each country could enter a maximum of 2 m ...

References

External links

* 1991 births Living people Sportspeople from Guimarães Portuguese male taekwondo practitioners European Games gold medalists for Portugal European Games medalists in taekwondo Taekwondo practitioners at the 2015 European Games Taekwondo practitioners at the 2023 European Games Taekwondo practitioners at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic taekwondo practitioners for Portugal Summer World University Games medalists in taekwondo S.L. Benfica (martial arts) Mediterranean Games silver medalists for Portugal Mediterranean Games medalists in taekwondo Taekwondo practitioners at the 2018 Mediterranean Games FISU World University Games silver medalists for Portugal European Taekwondo Championships medalists World Taekwondo Championships medalists Medalists at the 2017 Summer Universiade Medalists at the 2015 Summer Universiade Taekwondo practitioners at the 2020 Summer Olympics 21st-century Portuguese sportsmen {{Taekwondo-bio-stub