Local 10-year-old places first in national taekwondo tournament

At the 2024 USAT U.S. National Taekwondo Championship in Fort Worth, Texas, 10-year-old Brandon Lee from Lawton placed first and won a gold medal in the Poomsae division for 10-11-year-old red belts.

Ever since he started walking, Brandon Lee has been practicing taekwondo with support of his father Will, who owns World KM Taekwondo on Sheridan Rd. Brandon competes in state tournaments at least three times a year and after placing first in this year’s national qualifiers tournament in Oklahoma City, Lee qualified for the 2024 U.S. National Taekwondo Championship in Fort Worth, Texas.

Lee’s father, Will, said that it is difficult to be a part of these tournaments due to them often being far away. Cost of travel, tournament expenses, and time consumption have kept Lee away but with the tournament being in Fort Worth, the time was now.

There are three styles of taekwondo that you’ll find at competitions: poomsae, kyorugi, and gyeokpa. The style that Lee competes in is poomsae, the forms division. In this division, competitors perform a series of moves where your score is based off how good your technique is and if you can perform moves fluidly.

When Lee got to nationals, there were 18 competitors in the 10-11-year-old division that he would need to place higher than. He was nervous going into the tournament, saying, “I was really nervous, but I thought that I might have a chance at second or third. My dad said there would be good competition.” However, he couldn’t let his nerves get to him. “I told myself, ‘Don’t hesitate, keep going.’”

Once he got to the stage to compete, the nerves were nowhere to be found. Lee said that once he saw the judges he became really focused and when he heard the crowd cheer for him it gave him a much-needed boost of confidence.

After his performance, Lee had to wait for an hour to hear where he had placed. He said during that hour, “I felt more nervous than before.” The judges eventually announced placements and when they did, Lee had won gold in his division. “I was so shocked, I wanted to run around in circles.”

A gold medal at the U.S. National Taekwondo Championship is a big accomplishment for Lee and adds some more hardware to his collection of 15 awards he has won at tournaments throughout his time competing. To Lee, the best part of competing is getting a medal, saying, “I love it when I win.”

Lee will be competing in another state tournament on Sept. 28 in Tulsa but before he competes in the next national tournament, he has a goal of becoming a blackbelt. Becoming a blackbelt can take up to a year, but it will be worth it to compete against a new level of competition, according to Lee.