Carmen Marton
SPORT: Taekwondo Swisse Olympic Ambassador
In 2013, Carmen Marton became Australia’s first-ever world taekwondo champion after originally joining the sport at just eight years old with her father’s encouragement. “I’d more say that he forced us into it when we were little,” she laughs. “He really loved martial arts, and even though he played basketball himself it was always about taekwondo.” Marton is competing at her third Olympic Games in Rio, joined by partner Safwan Khalil and sister Caroline Marton, who is making her Olympic debut.
ON WINNING: “From my experience in sport, the people who usually win are the people who persevered through the hard times… who always seek knowledge, and self-improvement – never quite satisfied, always hungry. So winners definitely have to be determined, you have to be able to push through the hard times to reach those good times and always seek personal excellence.”
MOTTO: “Being a quite competitive female and always competing against males, in my club and against the world, my personal motto would be: Tell me I can’t and I’ll show you I can.”