Mourad Laachraoui (born 31 March 1995) is a Belgian

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. He won a gold medal at the

2016 European Taekwondo Championships The 2016 European Taekwondo Championships was the 22nd edition of the European Taekwondo Championships, and was held in Montreux, Switzerland, from May 19 to May 22, 2016. Medal table Medal summary Men Women Participating nations * * * * ...

Career

Laachraoui won bronze medals at the Dutch and Belgian Open events in 2013. In 2015 Laachraoui won a silver medal in the finweight class at the Summer Universiade games after losing to Iran's Armin Hadipour Seighalani in the final. He finished fifth in the men's finweight at the

2015 World Taekwondo Championships The 2015 World Taekwondo Championships were the 22nd edition of the World Taekwondo Championships, and were held in Chelyabinsk, Russia from May 12 to May 18, 2015. The decision to award the games to Russia was made in 2013 as they out-voted both ...

. He also won gold medals at the Israel, Fujairah and Alexandria Open tournaments and bronze medals at the Bosnia, Luxor and Swiss Opens. He won a gold medal in the

held in

Montreux Montreux (, ; ; ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, Swiss municipality and List of towns in Switzerland, town on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Swiss Alps, Alps. It belongs to the Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut (district), Riviera-Pays ...

, Switzerland. In the final of the −54 kg division he defeated 18-year-old Spanish fighter

Jesús Tortosa Jesús Tortosa Cabrera (born 21 December 1997 in Madrid) is a Spanish taekwondo athlete. Tortosa first drew attention in March 2014 when he won the gold medal in the under 51 kg division at the World Junior Taekwondo Championships held in ...

6–3 to win the tournament. After his victory the Flemish taekwondo federation dubbed him "Europe's king of the lightweights". Laachraoui may be selected to compete at the

2016 Summer 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 ...

to be held in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

, Brazil but he wasn't. The quota place for Belgian team in the men's 58 kg was originally earned by

Si Mohamed Ketbi Si Mohamed Ketbi (born 27 December 1997) is a Belgian taekwondo athlete. He represented his country at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, in the men's 58 kg. In 2017, he competed in the men's featherweight event at the 2017 World ...

via his world ranking position. However, Ketbi has struggled to maintain his weight and was unable to compete at the European Championships. The Belgian Taewkondo Federation is yet to decide between the three candidates that met the standard of being in the top 20 of the global Olympic 58 kg rankings; Laachraoui, ranked 15th, Ketbi, ranked 6th, and Salaheddine Bensaleh, ranked 18, are all eligible but Ketbi went in the end.

Personal life

Laachraoui was born on 31 March 1995. His brother

Najim Laachraoui Najm al-'Ashrāwī (, 18 May 1991 – 22 March 2016), also known as Abū Idrīs al-Baljīkī or Soufiane Kayal, was a Belgian-Moroccan terrorist and Islamic State militant who was one of two suicide bombers at Brussels Airport in the 2016 ...

was a

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...

confirmed to be one of the two suicide bombers at the

Brussels Airport Brussels Airport is the main international airport of Belgium. It is located in the municipality of Zaventem in Flemish Brabant, northeast of Brussels. Also informally known as Brussels-National Airport or Brussels-Zaventem Airport, Brussels ...

in the

2016 Brussels bombings On 22 March 2016, two coordinated terrorist attacks in and close to Brussels, Belgium, were carried out by the Islamic State (IS). Two suicide bombers detonated bombs at Brussels Airport in Zaventem just outside Brussels, and one detonated a b ...

. At a press conference following the bombings Mourad Laachraoui said that he was "scared and saddened" by what his brother had done and that "you don't choose your family." He did not have contact with his brother for years before the attack.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laachraoui, Mourad Belgian male taekwondo practitioners 1995 births Living people Belgian sportspeople of Moroccan descent People from Schaerbeek Summer World University Games medalists in taekwondo FISU World University Games silver medalists for Belgium European Taekwondo Championships medalists Medalists at the 2015 Summer Universiade Martial artists from Brussels 21st-century Belgian sportsmen