Sarah Chaari, a Belgian taekwondo fighter in the lightweight division, became Belgium’s first female world champion in taekwondo at the 2022 World Taekwondo Championships in Guadalajara, Mexico.
© Association Belge Francophone de Taekwondo
Chaari, who was born in Charleroi in 2004, had already won gold at the Junior Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria in August 2022. This also makes her the first-ever taekwondo fighter to become both Junior and Senior World Champion in the same year.
To earn her gold medal in Mexico, she competed against five other female fighters, from the United States, Germany, China, the UK, ending with a thrilling final against Greek fighter Theopoula Sarvanaki.
Sarah Chaari started fighting when she was just five years old and later moved to Brussels to train full-time at a higher level. That decision seems to be paying off, considering she won two world championships in only a few months’ time. Sarah’s next bout is planned for December at the Grand Prix final.
That said, she is already dreaming of the next great accomplishment: an Olympic medal, which she refers to as “the highest goal”. However, to achieve that dream, she has to gain five kilograms to achieve the middleweight class.
Three other Belgians, Raheleh Asemani and the brothers Badr and Jaouad Achab are also participating in the world championships. Jaouad Achab was Belgium’s first world taekwondo champion, earning the title at the 2015 World Championships in Russia.
Did you know that our world champion, Sarah Chaari is also studying medicine at the Université Libre de Bruxelles?
