The two-time European and taekwondo World Champion, Irem Yaman of Turkey, nicknamed ‘the Gold Hunter’, has announced her retirement at the age of 26. The former world number one began the disciple at the age of eight.
“Despite everything and everyone, I persevered and won,” Yaman said.
“I enjoyed every moment in my career knowing that every good thing has an end.”
Yaman, a lightweight, competed at the 62-kilogram division. She won two World Championships in a four-year span, staring 2015 in Chelyabinsk and another in 2019 in Manchester. Yaman took to her Twitter feed to thank her supporters:
“As everything has an end, now it’s time to say goodbye to my sport that made me who I am, and to you who support me endlessly,” Yaman tweeted.
At the 2018 Taekwondo Gala Awards, she won female player of the year after two Grand Prix victories.
As a student, she was a member of the taekwondo team at Hacettepe University in Ankara, and won two gold medals at the Summer Universiade games.
She also won the European title five-times, as well as golds at the Mediterranean and Islamic Solidarity Games and a 2017 Grand Slam title.
Although taekwondo has been an Olympic medal sport since the 2000 Sydney Games, Yaman never competed in the Olympics.
“Everything started 16 years ago with the dream of a little girl,” Yaman tweeted.
“I won the championship in my first competition and I believed that I will be the world champion. I never gave up because I knew that at the end of all this sacrifice, I would be the winner.”
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