Young taekwondo athlete from Saskatchewan wins gold in Puerto Rico

Yonatan Volfin had a golden experience at the Pan American Taekwondo games.

The young athlete from Saskatchewan won gold in both patterns and sparring in the 13-year-old division, and was also a part of the gold-winning Canadian team in sparring in the 14-15 division back in November.

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“It was good standing up there on the podium with my team, just smiling, you know, happy as can be. They’re all also 14 and 15, and it felt very good to go and compete at such a high level and win,” Volfin said.

Jennelle Sanders is one of the head instructors at Celis Taekwondo Academy in Regina. She said the success Volfin had comes from all the hard work he puts in.

“He’s so dedicated. He works really hard. He trained really hard for this, and just out there he shined. It was amazing to watch. In addition to Yonatan, we brought eight competitors, and all of them just did fantastic,” Sanders said.

“What it comes down to, I think, is just your want, your desire, and your willingness to work hard for it. He puts in the effort and he comes to classes multiple times a week. We would spend three hours every Saturday working together, and we’ve been doing that for months.”

The patterns event features a choreographed series of movements that the individual performs. But in the second round, the athlete is given a brand new set of movements to perform, and they must remember them at that moment.

Sparring is the combat portion of the event where the athletes are given points based on the strikes they land against an opponent.

Yonatan Volfin turned in an incredible performance at the International Taekwondo Federations Pan-Am games. (Britton Gray/980 CJME)

“My coaches, I have to thank them a lot. I mean, a triple gold, that’s a lot,” Volfin said. “A lot of training goes into that and lots of help from the coaches.”

Volfin said his love of taekwondo began as a hobby, and he decided to pick it up because the studio was close to his home.

“Training yourself as a person to improve, it’s always lots of fun. And then training with my team, and then you want to compete, it’s all super fun,” Volfin said.

That dedication to the craft is what allowed him to leave the country and compete on the international stage.

“I was just shocked. I was nervous. I was ready to go. I just wanted to train, train, train for it, and that’s what I did,” Volfin said.

Sanders said it was exciting to see her student succeed in such a great environment.

“He was so excited, as he should be. We all were,” Sanders said.

“If you know anything about the Puerto Ricans, they have a lot of pride in their country, so that gymnasium is loud and there’s cowbells and drums going and you you all get kind of swept up in that too. So there was lots of cheering, lots of hugging, lots of smiles.”

Sanders said it wasn’t a surprise to see Canada do well at the event. Canada finished in second place at the event with 42 medals: 15 gold, 14 silver and 12 bronze.

“People probably don’t know this but we actually have a pretty strong taekwondo foundation here in Canada. So in the total rankings of this tournament, Canada came in second, next to Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico supplied the most competitors because that’s where it was hosted. We brought 35 competitors, and we’re still able to get second in the rankings overall. So all in all, Canada does pretty well with taekwondo,” Sanders said.

A number of Canadian athletes participated at the games. (Boris Celis/submitted)

Sanders added that she believes Volfin can continue to compete on the international stage if he continues to work hard.

“Worlds is kind of that next step for him, and so we’ll definitely explore that option and that opportunity, and then things change,” she said.

“He’s in the junior division for now. When he becomes that adult we’ll go through this process again and we’ll get make sure the more opportunity he has at an international level, the better he’s going to do and the more experience you get. It just takes time.”

But for now, the young athlete is just soaking in the moment.

“I’m never forgetting that tournament,” Volfin said.