A Terrace martial artist is packing her bags in preparation for an international tournament in Australia and needs support from the community to help fund the trip.
Olivia Woods, 13, got her acceptance letter back in April for the 2018 International Taekwondo Federation World Cup competition in Sydney, Australia from September 25-30, and will be joining over 1,000 competitors from 35 countries in a round-robin style tournament. She’s going with her instructor Cody Skog, who nominated her for the competition, and her mom, Roxanne Woods, to represent Terrace and Canada in board breaking, sparring and patterns.
In the past, Olivia has earned medals in several provincial tournaments, including Kelowna, Smithers and Vancouver, earning first or second place each time.
“I like patterns and sparring, that’s mostly what we do,” Olivia said while demonstrating what patterns look like, where she pivots in four directions with different moves. “I’m really strong at breaking boards, too.”
She’s been practising taekwondo since she was six-years-old, right after watching the 2010 version of the Karate Kid for the first time, where 12-year-old Dre Parker trains under kung-fu master Hr. Han to take down a vicious school bully in a tournament.
“I used to watch that every night before I went to bed and I would pretend I was him,” Olivia said, smiling. “I liked watching him compete and how he learned it, and he practised a lot so I did too.”
Skog, who is Olivia’s version of Mr.Han, has been ramping up training with Olivia at taekwondo camp over the summer, going through different techniques she can use at the worlds competition. He’s seen Olivia grow and develop her skills with every lesson.
“Very dedicated, she comes to all the classes,” he said. “She’s got lots of power. She should be going for board breaking for sure – power competitions she should definitely be doing in the future. Board breaking and self-defence are her stronger areas, and then she’s come a long way with patterns.”
This is the first time she’ll be entering an international competition but needs some help to get there.
So far, Roxanne said the family and several local organizations have raised enough money since October 2017 to cover the cost of the trip for Olivia and her instructor. But with all the extra pre-paid expenses, with uniforms, visas and passports, there’s still a $9,000 gap to cover. Knowing how important this was to her daughter, Roxanne organized a fundraiser dinner on September 1 for Olivia to help pay for the trip overseas.
And its shaping up to be quite the send-off – the Gitlaxdax Terrace Nisga’a Dancers will be there, along with Atlantis Taekwondo who will do a demonstration with Olivia to show her power with board breaking. Now as the competition gets closer, Olivia said she’s a little nervous, but excited to go.
“I hope I come back with any medal, I’m okay with any medal. Especially because it’s worlds,” she said.
People who want to help Olivia with her trip to Australia can show their support at the send-off dinner fundraiser at the Evangelical Free Church (4640 Park Ave) from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on September 1, or make a donation to the family’s GoFundMe page.
Â
brittany@terracestandard.comLike us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
