Safwan Khalil (born 15 May 1986 in

Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis (from , meaning "three cities") may refer to: Places Greece *Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in the Pelasgiotis district, Thessaly, near Larissa ...

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

) is a

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 ...

athlete from Australia. He competed at the London Olympics in the 58 kg division, losing in a bronze medal match against Alexey Denisenko. Born in

Tripoli, Lebanon Tripoli ( ; , , ; , ; see #Names, below) is the largest and most important city in North Lebanon, northern Lebanon and the second-largest city in the country. Situated north of the capital Beirut, it is the capital of the North Governorate ...

, he has lived in Australia since he was a child, attending

Lurnea High School Lurnea High School (abbreviated as LHS) is a government-funded co-educational comprehensive secondary day school located in , a south-western suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. History Established in 1965, the school caters for ...

in south-western Sydney and training at his brother's gym, Global Martial Arts. His brother Ali Khalil, is also his coach, and the Australian Olympic coach for 2012. Khalil is engaged to fellow Olympic taekwondo athlete

Carmen Marton Carmen Marton (born 30 June 1986) is an Australian taekwondo athlete. She is Australia's first ever world taekwondo champion. Marton is of Polish Australian descent, since her parents were born in Poland and came to Australia as refugees. Her ...

. The couple were married under Islamic law (but not under Australian civil law) prior to the London Olympics in 2012. Khalil qualified for the Rio 2016 Olympics, which will be his second Olympics as a competitor. Khalil qualified for the

Tokyo 2020 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 ...

. In the men's 58 kg event in the round of 16, he lost to Ramnarong Sawekwiharee 23-7 and therefore did not advance any further in the competition.

Australia at the 2020 Summer Olympics Australia competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Originally scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020, the Games were postponed to 23 July to 8 August 2021, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Australia is one of only five cou ...

details the results in depth.

References

External links

* 1986 births Living people Australian male taekwondo practitioners Olympic taekwondo practitioners for Australia Taekwondo practitioners at the 2012 Summer Olympics Taekwondo practitioners at the 2016 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from Tripoli, Lebanon Lebanese emigrants to Australia Sportspeople of Lebanese descent Australian Muslims Summer World University Games medalists in taekwondo FISU World University Games gold medalists for Australia Medalists at the 2011 Summer Universiade Taekwondo practitioners at the 2020 Summer Olympics 21st-century Australian sportsmen Pacific Games gold medalists for Australia {{Taekwondo-bio-stub