Hello there my friend! My name is Julia and I was born in the wonderful year of 1999. I grew up in Mariehamn (Åland Islands) and have always liked sports. Football and horse riding were my favorite sports from childhood. Martial arts came into my life only by chance when I was 14 years old. My parents had just divorced and I had recently stopped playing football, as I did not have the same passion for it as before. A classmate told me one day in passing that he had tried something called Taekwondo, a martial art where you use a lot of kicks. From the little he told me, I thought it sounded very interesting and decided to enroll in a basic course at the local club. After the first training session I was hooked. I still continued riding horses until I was 16 years old. I still ride sporadically to this day because horses are close to my heart.
I’m still on that path today! Now I practice both Taekwondo and Kickboxing and have competed in both disciplines.
A little background information about me from these sports. So I started my martial arts journey as I said with Taekwondo. What got me hooked on the sport was partly the versatile form of training, and partly the training buddies who gave me both joy and security. The sport was appealing and already in 2016 I competed for the first time in Pori Open, in a Taekwondo match where I won Gold. The next time I competed in Pori I placed third. I started Kickboxing in 2016 after a training buddy persuaded me to start. So I started practicing both Taekwondo and Kickboxing, both of them three times a week. In 2019, I did my first Kickboxing match in Espoo lost, but found a taste for sparring and the competitive form of the practice. I knew this was something I wanted to continue with. In 2021 I once again competed in the Finnish Open and won gold. This medal meant my first place and I can no longer be seen as a beginner, but as an “experienced” fighter.
In addition to training and competitions, I also act as an instructor for both children and adults, and have been rewarded for my passionate interest in sports several times. After 5 years of hard training I got my first black belt in Taekwondo and in 2020 I got my black belt in Kickboxing awarded by K1 Superfighter Jörgen Kruth. Today I am a 4th dan black belt in Taekwondo, recognized by Richard Chun Taekwondo Headquarters, Moo Duk Kwan Taekwondo and Kukkiwon. In Kickboxing I am a 2.dan today, awarded by Jörgen Kruth and recognized by world champion Jarkko Jussila, champion Mathias Klockars and Soke Auvo Niiniketo , founder of kickboxing in Finland and Grandmaster of Hokutoryo Jiu-Jitsu.
As I aready mentioned I love to compete. That has meant extra training in addition to the 6 training sessions that are otherwise included in my regular schedule. I have to put in in as creatively as I can. I run to and from practices, I go to the gym in the early mornings, and I try to get as many sparring rounds as I possibly can, both in training and also friendly matches. Hard training is not something foreign to me, on the contrary, it’s something I love. I consider challenges and setbacks to be part of development. These make the win feel even more powerful. I have also been on a lot of trips thanks to the training around the world and seen a lot of new things that I don’t think I would have otherwise. Some destinations that I particularly remember are Seoul, South Korea where I performed for my 2.dan in Taekwondo, and New York (for the first time) when I did my 1.dan.
As an athlete, I am positive, determined and driven. I like challenges and having clear goals in front of me that I can tick off one by one. I’ve always liked to move forward and learn new things, so in martial arts I have progressed fairly quickly. All hard training is of course followed by stretching and relaxation between laps so that both body and bud can endure in the long run.
This new venture into Kickboxing competition is something I have been looking forward to and will be like a new journey for me in my martial arts career. My plan is to go to more matches and gain more experience and knowledge, as well as win more gold medals 😊