Suvi Mikkonen (born 11 July 1988, in

Saari Saari means ''island'' in Finnish and may refer to *Saari (name) *Saari, Finland, a former municipality *Saari, Estonia, a village *Saari language in Cameroon *Tarujen Saari, a Finnish folk-rock group *''Saari Bhool Hamari Thi'', a 2013 Pakistani d ...

Suvi Mikkonen
(in Finnish)) is a Finnish

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. Mikkonen is a Finnish national champion, three times the Nordic champion (2008, 2010, 2011), and won the European University Championship in 2009. She has competed in the 2009 and 2011 World Championships and the 2008 European Championships. Currently, she is a member of the Finnish National Team and, when in

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

, trains in

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

. She lives permanently in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

and trains with her coach and partner, Jesus Ramal, the head Olympic coach for the Finnish National Team. Mikkonen started Taekwondo training at a gym opened by

Chuck Norris Carlos Ray "Chuck" Norris (born March 10, 1940) is an American martial artist and actor. Born in Oklahoma, Norris first gained fame when he won the amateur Middleweight Karate champion title in 1968, which he held for six consecutive years. H ...

at the age of four in

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

, where she moved with her family. Mikkonen moved to

as a teenager and is studying Sport Sciences at the University of Madrid. She is fluent in Finnish, Spanish, and English. At the

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

, she competed in the under 57 kg defeating the Senegalese Bineta Diedhiou in the first round, but was defeated by eventual silver medalist Hou Yuzhuo of China in the quarterfinals. After being defeated by Hou Yuzhuo, she entered the Repechage and defeated Diana Lopez of the US. Eventually, she got 5th place due to being defeated by Tseng Li-cheng of

Chinese Taipei "Chinese Taipei" is the term used in various international organizations and tournaments for groups or delegations representing the Republic of China (ROC), a country commonly known as Taiwan. Due to the One China principle stipulated by the ...

in the bronze medal matches. She qualified for the

2016 Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

. In Rio, she beat Julia Vasconcelos Dos Santos before losing to Nikita Glasnovic.

References

Finnish female taekwondo practitioners 1988 births Living people Olympic taekwondo practitioners for Finland Taekwondo practitioners at the 2012 Summer Olympics Taekwondo practitioners at the 2016 Summer Olympics Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Spain Taekwondo practitioners at the 2015 European Games European Games competitors for Finland European Taekwondo Championships medalists 21st-century Finnish sportswomen {{Finland-taekwondo-bio-stub