Matías Barderi will represent Argentina in this World Cup in Junior forms of 3rd dan and in youth combat up to 65 kg. At 16 he already has an interesting winning streak that he hopes to build on at the ITF World Championships. In the 2018 World Cup he obtained 3rd place in forms and wrestling, while he was National Forms Champion in 2018 and 2020, 3rd place in Uruguay 2019 Pan-American wrestling, and National forms and wrestling champion in 2021.
“The preparation was intense, I have been training 5 days a week, sometimes double shift and sometimes triple. But although it was intense, I enjoyed every second of the training, because after all I am doing what I love.”
Her love for Taekwon-do came in a kind of family “trap”. “Initially, my mom didn’t agree with me doing a martial art, but once when she went on a trip for work, my dad took me to try it out, and I loved it… and never left it again.”
That passion surpasses any effort like the ones she had to do to prepare for this World Cup. “I had to make several sacrifices like not meeting my friends, not going to birthday parties or having to go training further than usual. There were many sacrifices in this process but all those sacrifices later pay off with the results we get.”
All with the priority of getting to the World Cup in the best possible way and meeting the objectives that were set for this great competition, “in addition to trying to get 1st place in both categories, I want to enjoy every moment that I am in the World Cup, because we don’t know what It’s going to happen in the future, and we don’t know when a process like this is going to be repeated.