Moon Dae-Sung
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- This is a Korean name; the family name is Moon.
Olympic medal record | |||
Competitor for South Korea | |||
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Men's Taekwondo | |||
Olympic Games | |||
Gold | 2004 Athens | +80kg | |
World Championships | |||
Gold | 1999 Edmonton | Heavyweight | |
Asian Games | |||
Gold | 2002 Busan | Heavyweight | |
Asian Championships | |||
Gold | 2000 Hong Kong | Heavyweight |
Moon Dae-Sung | ||||
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Moon Dae-Sung (born September 3, 1976) is an approximately 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 200 lb (91 kg) Olympic taekwondo athlete from South Korea. He won a gold medal at the 2004 Olympics held in Athens, Greece, in the heavyweight division after knocking out Greece's Alexandros Nikolaidis with a jump spinning hook kick.
Moon is a graduate of Dong-A University in Busan, South Korea, with a Bachelor's equivalent degree in physical education. He is a member of the Samsung Corporation Professional Taekwondo team. His predecessor in the heavyweight division of the Korean National team was Kim Je-Gyoung, two time Olympic Gold Medalist and also a member of the Samsung Professional Team and graduate of Dong-A University. This university has a long and celebrated tradition of producing high-caliber taekwondo athletes with an emphasis on excellent ring-generalship and overall fitness.
Prior to admission to the elite Samsung team, Dae Sung served as Captain and then head coach (though not overall administrative leader) of the Dong-A University taekwondo team. He entered Dong-A University on a taekwondo scholarship and performed consistently well in national competition, though usually overshadowed by the dominant heavyweight Kim Je-Gyoung.
Since his high profile win at the Athens Olympic Games, Moon has become a well known celebrity in South Korea, owing to the spectacular performance in the Gold Medal round and what many Koreans consider his striking good looks and tall stature. He has become the official Audi Automobile Company's spokesman and has made numerous television and public appearances.
Notable abilities which make him an elite and consistent athlete are: Left leg roundhouse kick, left leg back kick and spinning hook kick (with which he knocked out Alexandros Nikolaidis) as well as a solid grasp of other core techniques indispensable to fighting in high level international and Korean domestic competitions.
In late 2007, Moon interviewed with KBS and made several notable comments on his unlikely Olympic medalship. First, Moon recognized Kim Je-Gyoung as South Korea's most notable and skilled heavyweight athlete. He stated that only in Kim's absence was he able to secure a spot on the national team. Kim had repeatedly defeated Moon and denied him spots on several prestigious domestic professional teams. Moon also noted British born American taekwondo athlete Nasseem Carr with providing him with nutritional, strength and spiritual training "revelation" while the two resided together in Busan, Korea. Carr has not weighed in on the subject but Moon repeatedly alludes to him, both in written and video interviews, as the source of a motivational spark when his taekwondo career at Dong-A university appeared to be culminating in a termination following graduation. This unusual conflagration between the two has been the subject of some speculation and both denied and affirmed by various administrative staff of the World Taekwondo Federation.
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