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Keita looks to kick-start Mali's Olympic dream

29 May 2008

Series on Olympic Scholarship Holders Beijing 2008: today Daba Modibo Keita.




In the early 1960s, Taekwondo Master Kim Young Tae travelled to Ivory Coast to bring the Korean martial art to Western Africa; at the end of the 1960s, one of his students took it upon himself to spread the word in neighbouring Mali. Forty years later, taekwondo is the most popular sport in that country, and Daba Modibo Keita has a realistic chance of winning Mali's first-ever Olympic medal in Beijing this summer.
Le Malien Daba Modibo Keita (à gauche) fête sa victoire sur l'Iranien Morteza Rostami (à droite)





Hopes of a nation
With over 150 clubs and 500 black belts among 15,000 exponents, taekwondo's popularity has taken on phenomenal proportions in a country that is Africa's seventh largest but one of the world's poorest. Keita knows he carries the hopes of a nation into the Olympic arena, but breaking new ground for his country should hold few fears for him as last year, despite a torn back muscle, he became Mali's first ever world champion.

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Posted by Pilo Gui at 5:18 PM
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