Carmen Marton


Carmen Marton is a taekwondo athlete from Australia. She is Australia's first ever world taekwondo champion.
Marton is of Polish Australian descent, since her parents were born in Poland and came to Australia as refugees. Her parents, siblings and partner have all been taekwondo athletes.

Career

As a junior, Marton achieved a number of international benchmark results:
She has also competed in the 2007 World Taekwondo Championships competing in the bantamweight and welterweight, winning two fights, the 2009 World Taekwondo Championships finishing in the round of 16, and the 2011 World Taekwondo Championships in the lightweight division, losing to Marina Sumić in the quarter finals
Marton secured a bronze at the 2011 Universiade Games in Shenzhen, China. In September 2011 she secured the under 67 kg division for Australia at the Oceania Olympic Qualification Tournament. She won, and competed in the 2008 Olympics in the +67 kg category, losing to Natália Falavigna in the quarterfinals.
Marton won the women's lightweight gold medal at the 2013 World Taekwondo Championships, becoming Australia's first ever world taekwondo champion, after breaking the tied scores and defeating Korean Kim Huy Lan with just 4 seconds left on the clock.
Marton, her partner, brother and sister all won Gold in taekwondo at the 2015 Pacific Games.
Carmen qualified for the Rio Olympics, which will be her third Olympics as a competitor.

Personal

Marton is engaged to fellow Olympic taekwondo athlete Safwan Khalil, whom she met while she was a teenager. The pair were Australia's only taekwondo representatives at the 2012 Summer Olympics, where Marton narrowly missed out on winning a bronze medal. Marton was born and raised a Catholic, but converted to Islam in 2009. She describes her conversion as a natural progression: " stories are the same was really surprising to me".
Marton's father is a Polish taekwondo exponent and introduced her to the sport. She has a brother, Jack, and sister, Caroline Marton, who are also her training partners and whom she describes as world-class athletes.
She has a Bachelor of Exercise and Sport Science degree from Deakin University and was a former state volleyballer. Her personal motto is ‘hard work and ambition overtake natural ability.’