Excellence
SFU biophysics student to represent Canada in taekwondo at Paris 2024
An SFU student hopes to kick butt – literally – at the upcoming Summer Games.
SFU biophysics student Josipa Kafadar is heading to France this summer to compete as one of Canada’s taekwondo hopefuls at the 2024 Paris Games (July 26 to Aug. 11, 2024).
“I like that I get to kick people in the face,” says Kafadar, jokingly. The 23-year-old qualified for her first Olympics after a top-two finish in the women’s 49 kg event at the Pan American Qualification Tournament this spring.
“For the Olympics, I don't see a reason for why I can't medal,” she adds. “I'm not a favorite by any means, but everyone is very equal when it comes to physicality. I think it's just who comes mentally on that day that wins or performs the best.”
'It just felt good to kick people, but also like be rewarded for it.'
Josipa Kafadar, SFU student and Olympian
Kafadar, who was previously an alternate for the 2020 Tokyo Games, got her start in taekwondo as a child, when her father enrolled her for lessons on her fourth birthday. He’d grown up in a small village in Bosnia and started training in martial arts after he came to Canada in the 1990s.
“I had my first competition when I was a yellow belt, I think I was five, and I won that competition. It just felt good to kick people, but also like be rewarded for it, which sounds a little bit odd, but it was a great experience.”
Kafadar, who is from Burnaby, received her black belt at 12 and made the national team at 14. She won silver at the Junior World Championships a few years later. She now trains with a club in Surrey.
In her fifth year at SFU, Kafadar credits her membership in the Physics Student Association for helping her meet people in the university and being comfortable on campus. She says professors were supportive of her busy training schedule.
“There have been points in time where it has been tougher,” Kafadar says. “During Covid, it was hard because I couldn't really spar with my team properly.
“I'm self-motivated because I just really like I like the sport. Just having that goal of going to the Olympics, or just achieving something great, was something I always wanted to do.”