Harford County Martial Arts Students Return Home Victorious From National Competition

BEL AIR, MD — Last month, a team of 14 martial arts students traveled from Maryland to Texas where they competed in the U.S. National Championships. They returned home with four national champions who claimed gold, three silver medal winners and three bronze medal winners.

U.S. Taekwondo Academy Master Jennifer Pasion told Patch that the experience was amazing for the kids especially since 2024 is an Olympic year.

"Taekwondo is an official Olympic sport and took place at the Paris Olympics," Pasion said. "They were extremely excited to compete, especially in this Olympic year. Not only did they qualify to compete on the national level, but they got to experience some core memories that included meeting the four taekwondo Olympians who were competing in the Paris Olympics.

"It is an amazing feeling to see all the hard work, dedication and sacrifice culminate in outstanding performances at the grand event. Win or lose, we only ask our students to give their 100% and to face their nerves fearlessly. Bringing home the gold, silver and bronze medal hardware was just a bonus for our team, but learning to grow their confidence and overcome obstacles and self-doubt, channel their focus and passion, and watch them have fun out there was a spectacular thing to witness. We are extremely proud of all of our athletes who competed at Nationals this year," Pasion shared with Patch.

Because Nationals was held in Texas, all gold medalists also received a cowboy or cowgirl hat at the podium, which was an extra special treat.

"One of our gold medalists had all four Olympians autograph her cowgirl hat. She is a rising senior in high school and plans to talk about this amazing experience when applying for colleges this fall," Pasion said.

U.S. Taekwondo Academy first opened in 1982 in Brunswick, Maryland, then opened in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1983 when Grand Master Se Yong Chang, the founder, was stationed there while he served in the U.S. Army. He then opened a branch in Baltimore in 1987 and in Bel Air in 2003. There are two locations in Bel Air - one on Main Street and one on Churchville Road.

"We also taught at the Johns Hopkins University for 17 years before the coronavirus pandemic," Pasion said. "We chose Bel Air because we grew up here and are Harford County natives."

The academy specializes in taekwondo, which is the Korean martial art of self-defense with your hands and feet, Pasion said. The youngest students are 2.5 years old in the Little Ninjas toddler program. The oldest student is 69 years old and she recently earned her master's status.

"She has undergone two full hip replacements and has used taekwondo as therapy and is now thriving," Pasion said.

For the past 11 consecutive years, U.S. Taekwondo Academy has been voted Harford's Best Martial Arts business.

Below is a list of the national competitors and how they did:

• Alex Dong - gold and bronze
• Alyssa Courtney - gold
• Andrew Roe - silver
• Anh Lam - silver
• Asher Chang - bronze
• Charlotte Chang - gold
• Evelyn Judy - gold and bronze
• Ronan Heinze - silver
• Outstanding performances by Chris Chang, Deliah Marini, Evan Davis, Sofia Lasio, Wyatt Sutton and Zoey Skevakis