EOC Refugee Team athlete Dina Pouryounes Langeroudi competes in taekwondo at European Games 2023
The Tokyo 2020 Olympian won her first bout before being defeated in the quarterfinals and succumbing to Azerbaijan’s Minaya Akbarova in the repechage.
Taekwondo
Despite a brave battle in the -46kg taekwondo competition this Friday 23 June, EOC Refugee Team athlete Dina Pouryounes Langeroudi will not continue with her quest to win gold at the 2023 European Games in Poland.
The 31-year-old, who is currently ranked sixth in the 2023 World Kyorugi Rankings, began the day with victory in the round of 16, beating Serbia’s Lana Komnenovic by 2 rounds to 1 to advance to the quarterfinals.
However, a loss to Italy’s Sofia Zampetti in the last eight left Pouryounes needing to win her repechage bout in order to have a chance of bronze. Despite her best efforts, she was unable to defeat Azerbaijan’s Minaya Akbarova and leaves the European Games without a medal.
Pouryounes Langeroudi’s journey in taekwondo began when she was only three years old and she was crowned national champion before fleeing Islamic Republic of Iran for the Netherlands in 2015.
Since then, she has become one of the finest taekwondo athletes in her weight division, with a list of medals that include silver at the European Senior Championships in 2018, and two golds in both the 2017 and 2018 Turkish Open and 2018 and 2019 Dutch Open.
She holds the distinction of being the first-ever refugee athlete to compete in the World Taekwondo Championships, while she also became an Olympian when she fought at Tokyo 2020 in the -49kg division.
"Sport gives me peace and confidence," she said before the last Olympic Games in Tokyo. "I hope [refugees] are motivated to try to reach their goals and become successful."
While Pouryounes Langeroudi’s road to becoming an Olympian was not an easy one, she has spoken about the role her sport has played in helping her overcome challenges in life.
“It makes you strong, it takes care of your mental as well as your physical health,” she said.
Pouryounes Langeroudi is one of four EOC Refugee Team athlete competing at the 2023 European Games along with Farid Walizadeh, Cindy Ngamba and Kasra Mehdipournejad.