IT takes a lot to subdue a woman like Fay Shacklock but being awarded her international seventh dan, seven levels above a blackbelt, for taekwondo seems to have done it. Well, almost.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Related content: Scooped the awards at taekwondo championships: photos and video...click here
“Very few women outside of Korea achieve this. I’m not too far off now from being an International Grand Master,” said the Great Lakes based grandmother, who hopes to reach it by the age of 80.
Apart from now needing to add a white stripe to the six already on her blackbelt, Fay is already considering the doctoral type thesis she needs to complete in order to join some of the highest ranked taekwondo women in the world.
“Once you’ve passed fifth Dan, you need to do exams and write a thesis. I’ve chosen to study taekwondo as a sport pre and post Olympics, and the differences in how it is practised in poorer and wealthier countries,” she said, commenting that prior to the Sydney Olympics in 2000 taekwondo was not included in Olympic medal tallies.
It does not sound like it will be light reading but Fay does not shy away from challenges, first getting into taekwondo 34 years ago as a single mother looking for activities to share with her two children.
It obviously struck a chord within her, because before she knew it she was bartering odd-jobs with her instructor for a chance at some private lessons.
“I even painted some of his house. He was a Korean Army taekwondo champion and one of the first instructors of the sport in Australia. I thought if I’m going to do something, I want to learn from the best in the world. I did a very hard apprenticeship with him, and still keep in touch with his family,” Fay said.
“Taekwondo becomes a way of life. It can do so many things, and help so many people. I’ve worked with the abled, disabled, I’ve embraced the whole lot.”
For someone who came to the sport as an adult, the honours have been piling up with just cause.
Fay has won gold medals in contact fighting, but is best known as the longest reigning international champion for power breaking at 23 years.
She was the first person to be inducted into the International Taekwondo Hall of Fame in the Humanitarian Category with her special interests concerned with preventing bullying in school children.
She was the first woman ever elected to the seven-member executive council of taekwondo, let alone the vice-president position. She was behind a major push to make it a paralympic sport, has worked with the Police Citizens’ Youth Clubs, and last year was named the Great Lakes Council Citizen of the Year.
She also founded and runs the Forster Taekwondo Academy, hosting invitational championships on an annual basis.
Fay glanced with pride at the plaque she recently received from the sport’s highest authority, ‘Chung Do Kwan’s (a form of taekwondo) international president, in recognition of achieving seventh dan status.
“I’ve been blessed to be so accepted by people, in no matter what aspect of taekwondo I’ve reached out to. It took many many years but people walk across mats to talk to me now.”