Kashish Malik - You need to stand for yourself, nobody is going to do it for you

I’m glad to bring you a NEW EPISODE of Taekwondo Passion.

The story of Kashish Malik.

A young athlete with high aspirations from India.

Gold medal in South Asian Games 2019. Only indian athlete to reach quarter finals in Jakarta Asian Games 2018 three months after being diagnosed with jaundice.

She didn’t want to learn taekwondo but her sports instructor challenged her.

She loved taekwondo so much that she changed her goals of a high position in the Government of India to start pursuing an athletic career.

She is fighting outside the ring trying to inspire future indian taekwondo athletes.

Fighting internationally she has learned that in competition you can be an opponent with other athletes, but outside it your opponents are also beautiful souls.

Kashish is young but determined, an athlete that never gives up.

Please enjoy the interview and let us know your thoughts on the comments section.

Feeling a superhero

The story of Kashish Malik has a common beginning on successful taekwondo athletes.

They were very active kids, not always with the best behaviour. She was a very sporty girl who loved to play cricket with her brothers.

When she was 6 year old, playing to be a superhero Kashish Malik jumped over the back of her brother, causing him to fall to the floor and to have a tooth broken. Later she got in trouble at school for defending against a bully.

Her sports teacher and also a taekwondo instructor saw her energy and invited her to take taekwondo classes.

But the martial art was not attractive for her. As she already stood up against the bully with no need of taekwondo, why would she need it?

The teacher challenged her to go to his taekwondo school and sparr with one of his students. As she was new to the martial art naturally she didn’t win.

But even though it was something new for her she didn’t give up.

Now she is one of the best athletes of her country. The first to win a gold medal at the South Asian Games and with a strong compromise to inspire future Indian taekwondo athletes.
How to help athletes to pursue a career in taekwondo?

Taekwondo is a martial art practiced in the whole world. Often we hear that is only the second most practiced sport after football.

It is an Olympic sport, but still we do not have a solid professional platform for athletes around the world. As we talked with Erica Stephens the Grand Slam is one of the first attempts and I hope in the future we will have more events like this.

Pursuing a taekwondo career is a difficult task for many athletes. Kashish shared with us that she wants to make taekwondo more popular in her country, because although many people practice taekwondo in India, athletes are not encouraged to go for the olympic dream.

It is seen as very risky, because if you don’t succeed it is considered a waste of time. But it is not the same with other more popular sports, like cricket.

This is common around the world. Athletes and their families have to make big efforts to fund competitions and training, we can hear about it in our interviews with Terrence Jennings and Victoria Stambaugh for example.

Kashish shared with us that she wants to win an olympic medal to change this. One medal can change everything. As Bradly Sinden shared with us, there was a big difference after Sarah Stevenson’s olympic medal for Great Britain.

The fighting spirit of Kashish “I never give up”

Kashish is a fighter, she proved it at her first taekwondo class and later in her career she had to do it many times.

She was selected to the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta. Three months before the competition she got jaundice.

The doctor said that she couldn’t go to the tournament, her situation was bad and