Taekwondo Teen Fights Competitors, Cancer

Almost every Saturday, 13-year-old Edgewater resident Celine Prenatt travels several hours to Centreville, VA where she trains at World Class Martial Arts to become the best taekwondo athlete she can be.

However, last Saturday, Celine saw her hard work pay off as she won a massive trophy and defeated opponents out of her weight class—all while “kicking it to cancer” in the process.

In a special charity taekwondo tournament called “Kick Cancer Out of the World,” Celine and her teammates from Virginia-based Peak taekwondo, competed against other athletes to test their skills and help people battling cancer.

Already an “alternate” on the USA Amateur Athletic Union’s (AAU) National taekwondo Team, Celine earned her black belt in August 2011 and competed in black belt divisions at the charity event.

Celine’s mother, Lynn Prenatt, said the teenage martial artist faced athletes significantly older than herself, but still fared well, winning her only match in the 14-17 division. Celine also took home the Grand Championship trophy after she defeated someone who had a 40-pound advantage. After winning the big match, Celine received a trophy that’s nearly six feet tall.

“It was a little scary for me as a Mom, but I had every confidence in her. She’s been working towards this for a long time,” Lynn Prenatt said. “She’s actually the youngest of seven, and so she had three older brothers, and her older brother used to do taekwondo too, so she was sort of following in their footsteps.”

Despite bringing home a trophy nearly twice as tall as she is, Celine just said she was proud to compete with a purpose.

“It was a lot of fun to compete in a tournament that was to help people with cancer,” she said.