Ivett Gonda

Ivett Gonda (born April 28, 1986 in Jaszbereny, Hungary) is a Canadian taekwondoer. She moved to Canada when she was four. She currently resides in Port Moody, British Columbia where she trains under her coach, Shin Wook Lim at Tae Geuk Taekwondo.

Career

She began taekwondo in 1995. She was the second Canadian ever to make the Olympic team in 2004.She finished in fifth place at the 2003 World Championships in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany in the Finweight-47 kg event.

2008 Summer Olympics

Ivett is part of the three member Canadian Olympic team at the Summer Olympic Games in Taekwondo along with Karine Sergerie & Sebastien Michaud.

On August 20, 2008 Gonda faced Hanna Zajc of Sweden in her first bout at the Beijing olympics and lost 2-0 in a controversial upset. The outcome of the match stirred immediate controversy as Gonda had landed numerous strikes which were arguably scoring blows including a clear head-shot that knocked down Zajc and would have given Gonda 2 points had it been accepted by the judges. Gonda's coach, Shin Wook Lim protested during and afer the match, but was ignored by judges who refused interviews and comments through intermediaries. Lim has suggested that Lei Zhao, a Chinese judge, one of four judges scoring the match, and head of the Chinese Taekwondo federation intentionally ignored Gonda's scoring to see the 33rd ranked Zajc advance to face a Chinese competitor in the next round instead of Gonda, widely reported as a medal contender prior to the bout and ranked 3rd in the world. Olympic taekwondo uses electronic clickers to tally points. Three of four judges must click in a point within a short interval for points to be tallied. Thus any conspiracy of two is sufficient to nullify any points scored. [cite web |url=http://www.tsn.ca/olympics/story/?id=246955 |title=Taekwondo medal hopeful Gonda eliminated |publisher=TSN.ca |author=The Canadian Press|accessdate=2008-08-20|date=2008-08-20]

Career Highlights

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*2007 Pan American Games: Bronze
*2007 World Championship: 9th
*2006 Canadian Senior National Championships: Gold
*2006 Senior Pan American Championship: Bronze
*2005 Canadian Senior National Championships: Gold
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*2005 World Championship: 5th
*2004 Canadian Senior National Championships: Gold
*2004 Pan-American Championships: Gold
*2004 Olympic Games: 5th
*2003 Canadian Senior National Championships: Gold
*2003 World Taekwondo Championships: 5th

Awards

*Named Most Valuable Player at the 2002 Junior National Championships and the 2006 Senior National Championships

References

*http://www.combatcanada.ca/forum/index.php?topic=27.0
*http://www.olympic.ca/EN/hopefuls/2007/taekwondo.html
*http://www.canada.com/topics/sports/beijing2008/story.html?id=752e85c7-478b-4661-8269-9f98ae5807c4
*http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/taekwondo/story/2008/08/19/f-olympics-taekwondo-gonda.html
*http://www.tsn.ca/olympics/story/?id=246955&lid=headline&lpos=secStory_main
*http://olympics.thestar.com/2008/article/481950

External links

*http://www.olympic.ca/Beijing2008/EN/632/Athletes.htm
* [http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/BIO/Athlete/8/211738.shtml Official Beijing Olympics profile]