Sarah Diana Stevenson, MBE (born 30 March 1983) is a British

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. ...

athlete. A world champion in 2001, Stevenson won her country's first ever Olympic medal in taekwondo, a bronze, at the 2008 Games in Beijing, her third Olympic competition for Great Britain. Controversially eliminated before the medal rounds, she was reinstated following appeal and went on to win the bronze medal final. Stevenson again became world champion in 2011, despite the loss of both her parents to cancer in the preceding year. Stevenson was selected for her home games in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

in 2012, where she took the Olympic oath at the

opening ceremony An opening ceremony, grand opening, or ribbon-cutting ceremony marks the official opening of a newly-constructed location or the start of an event.

on behalf of all the athletes. Her injury-truncated build up to the Games led to an early elimination; she had taken silver at the Olympic qualifiers despite suffering a broken hand. In 2013, Stevenson announced her retirement from competition, and her intention to take up a coaching role in the Great Britain team.

Early life

Stevenson was born in

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated i ...

and attended the

Don Valley High School Don Valley Academy member of Delta Academies Trust (formerly Don Valley School and Performing Arts College) is a mixed 11–18 Academy located in Scawthorpe, Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The school also has a Sixth Form centre. History ...

in Scawthorpe. She started training taekwondo at the age of 7.

Career

Stevenson started her career by becoming Junior World Champion in 1998. In 2000, she won the 3rd place in

taekwondo at the 2000 Summer Olympics Taekwondo was contested as an official sport at the Olympic Games for the first time at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. It had previously been a demonstration sport in 1988 and 1992. Medals were awarded in four weight classes each f ...

's World Qualification Tournament and qualified for the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 ( Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from ...

in Women's 67 kg. These achievements won her fame and drew the attention of martial arts superstar

Jackie Chan Fang Shilong (born 7 April 1954), known professionally in English as Jackie Chan and in Chinese as Cheng Long ( zh, c=成龍, j=Sing4 Lung4; "becoming the dragon"), is a Hong Kong actor, filmmaker, martial artist, and stuntman known for ...

who sponsored her while promoting his film ''

Shanghai Noon ''Shanghai Noon'' is a 2000 martial arts western action comedy film starring Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson and Lucy Liu. The first in the ''Shanghai'' film series and marking the directorial debut of Tom Dey, ''Shanghai Noon'' was written by Alfre ...

'' in the United Kingdom. But in the 2000 Olympics she lost to Norway's Trude Gundersen in the semifinal and Japan's Yoriko Okamoto in the bronze match. The next year, she became a world champion in the 2001 World Taekwondo Championships's Women's Middleweight, defeating 2000 Summer Olympics gold medalist

Chen Zhong Chen Zhong (; born November 22, 1982) is a retired Chinese taekwondo competitor who represented her country at international level for more than 10 years, including three consecutive Summer Olympic Games. She won China's first Olympic gold med ...

in the final. She became the first British Taekwondo World champion. At the

2004 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 the Women's +67 kg event she was eliminated by

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in ...

's Adriana Carmona in the first round. She later trained at Sportcity in Manchester and is a member of the Allstars Taekwondo Academy in Doncaster. coached by Master Gary Sykes

2008 Olympics

Due to an "error" in judging, Stevenson almost exited the 2008 Olympics in the quarterfinal stage following her match with China's

, the gold medal favourite. In the final round of the match, the judges failed to award Stevenson two points for a high-kick to the head, which would have put her one point in the lead with 10 seconds remaining. Following the match, the British team representative immediately made an official protest and, after studying video footage of the kick the judges reversed the result of the fight and Stevenson progressed to the semifinal. Stevensons's semifinal opponent was María del Rosario Espinoza of Mexico, and she lost 4–1, also sustaining a twisted ankle. She then went on to compete for bronze in the repechage, defeating Noha Abd Rabo of

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Med ...

and winning Britain's first Olympic medal in the sport of taekwondo. On announcing the change of result in the quarter final, the tournament director said: As a result of this judging error in particular, emphasis may be switching to having electronic scoring equipment contained within the actual body protectors themselves, and many tournaments are now using these in trial phase. However, since this technology is far from refined, and due to tactical differences needed in gameplay and style, Stevenson, and athletes from other National Teams, currently do not favour this system and often boycott such tournaments.

2012 Olympics

At the opening ceremony of the

London 2012 Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, Sarah Stevenson was chosen to take the Competitors oath. She lost to American Paige McPherson in the preliminary round.

Career highlights

*2011 World Taekwondo Championships: Gold *2010 European Championships: Gold *2009 British Open International: Gold *2008 Summer Olympics: Bronze *2006 Commonwealth Taekwondo Championships: Gold *2005 World Taekwondo Championships: Silver *2005 European Championships: Gold *2004 European Championships: Gold *2004 Summer Olympics: 15th *2001 World Taekwondo Championships: Gold *2000 Summer Olympics: 4th *1998 European Championships: Gold

Personal life

Stevenson was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(MBE) in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to martial arts. In January 2014 Stevenson was made a

Freeman Freeman, free men, or variant, may refer to: * a member of the Third Estate in medieval society (commoners), see estates of the realm * Freeman, an apprentice who has been granted freedom of the company, was a rank within Livery companies * Free ...

of her home town of

References

External links

Sarah Stevenson's official website

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stevenson, Sarah 1983 births Sportspeople from Doncaster English female taekwondo practitioners Living people Olympic bronze medallists for Great Britain Olympic medalists in taekwondo Olympic taekwondo practitioners of Great Britain Taekwondo practitioners at the 2000 Summer Olympics Taekwondo practitioners at the 2004 Summer Olympics Taekwondo practitioners at the 2008 Summer Olympics University of Massachusetts Amherst alumni Members of the Order of the British Empire Taekwondo practitioners at the 2012 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics Oath takers at the Olympic Games The Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year winners European Taekwondo Championships medalists World Taekwondo Championships medalists