Taekwondo is a form a martial arts. It is also a competitive sport. The martial art form has its origin in Korea from the Three-Kingdom era from around c. 57 bce to 668 ce.
The sport in its modern version only started becoming popular when the World Taekwondo Federation was formed in 1973. It was also the year when the sport’s first World Championship was held in South Korea. Because of its Korean origins, the sport was included as a demonstration event when Seoul hosted the 1988 Olympics. Twelve years later at the 2000 Sydney Games, the sport was made a medal event.
There are over 200 nations that practice Taekwondo and India is one of them. Some of India’s top taekwondo players are Danish Manzoor, Rupa Bayor, Latika Bhandari, Rodali Barua, Aman Kumar Kadyan, Navjeet Maan and Kashish Malik. A quick check on the age profile of these taekwondo players will tell that that the sport is still young in India.
Among these young taekwondo stars, Kashish stands out. At just 24 she has already registered some notable wins. She reached the quarterfinals at the 2018 Asian Games, won gold medals at the World Taekwondo Malaysia, Asian Games Invitational. She is the first Indian woman to win at G-1 & G-2 International Tournaments. She has backed those performances with multiple medals from Israel, Jordan, and the President’s Cup. When she is not practicing Taekwondo, Kashish doubles up as an event host.
To know more about her and the sport of Taekwondo, The Sportz Planet sat down for an interview. Kashish spoke at length about how she got into the sport, the sport’s powerhouses, how India can improve in Taekwondo and much more.
Excerpts of the interview is below:
Could you start by telling how you got into Taekwondo?
Kashish Malik: Back then in school, I was a very sporty child. I was equally good at academics. I wanted to invest myself, my energy and everything into becoming an IAS officer. But in school an incident happened. I got into a fight with a boy. My coach noticed that I had this raw energy. He saw that I had potential to achieve something in sports. He wanted to channelize my energy. He thought my energy would be good for a sport like Taekwondo for many reasons. Firstly, the sport involves aggression. It also needs a lot of courage and fearless attitude. Taekwondo is a form of martial arts. I had all these traits. So that’s how I began into this and I began my career, my sport Taekwondo journey.
You had option to choose other forms of martial arts as well, why did you choose Taekwondo?
Kashish Malik: Taekwondo falls under the broader category of martial arts. But when I started my journey, it was through school — and in schools, especially back then, the options for sports were quite limited. You didn’t have a wide range of disciplines to choose from. So it wasn’t like I could just look around and pick a sport apart from Taekwondo.
At that time, I had no real exposure to the broader world of martial arts. The only basic understanding I had was of Taekwondo itself — that it’s an Olympic sport, part of the Asian Games, the Commonwealth Games, and events like the Grand Slam and Grand Prix. But beyond that, I had no idea about the many other martial art forms out there.
From as early as the first grade, I would see kids practicing Taekwondo during recess, lunchtime, or after school. That’s where my initial knowledge came from — just watching and absorbing what I saw around me. Over time, I started to look up to it, even though at first I didn’t really think much about it. Other sports like swimming or basketball were there, but they weren’t as prominent or accessible as Taekwondo was in my school.
So in a way, I didn’t actively choose Taekwondo — the environment kind of chose it for me. And it was only after a certain incident that I really got involved in the sport more seriously.
Unfortunately, sports like Taekwondo doesn’t get much of media attention, mainstream media attention. So major part of India doesn’t understand what Taekwondo is and about athletes like yourself. So could you for our readers tell how is India performing in Taekwondo?
Kashish Malik: Taekwondo is, in my opinion, one of the most rapidly evolving sports today. Every year, we see changes in the format — whether it’s the competition structure, technical rules, or gameplay strategies. Whether at the Asian Games, the Olympics, or other major events, the sport keeps evolving.
And with that evolution, athletes and countries need to keep up. If you don’t adapt at the same pace, other nations will — and they’ll be the ones taking home the medals. So if you want to compete and win at the world-class level, you have to constantly expose yourself to new developments, stay updated, and evolve your game.
If we look back five or ten years, Taekwondo wasn’t changing much — and as a result, our performance as a country was kind of neutral. Sometimes we did well, sometimes we didn’t. But now, with the sport becoming more dynamic, the approach has changed too.
What’s exciting is that I see a strong urge to learn and grow among both the youth coming into Taekwondo and the senior athletes. This mindset is driving progress. India has started to make significant strides in Taekwondo — not just participating, but actually making a mark on the global stage.
Taekwondo in India is still not a fully established sport — it’s emerging. But even as an emerging sport, we’ve begun to bring in laurels, and the journey of building a strong presence is actively underway. I would say that over the last two to four years, India has truly carved out a place for itself in the international Taekwondo community. Today, when you talk about global Taekwondo, people recognize India — and that in itself is a big achievement.
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India is still an emerging country in Taekwondo, but there will still be some established countries which are the superpowers in the sport. So could you tell us which are the countries that are best performing countries in Taekwondo?
Kashish Malik: Taekwondo is the national sport of South Korea, and naturally, South Korea is one of the top-performing countries in the world when it comes to Taekwondo. In fact, the Asian region overall is the most competitive when compared to others, including Europe.
Europe is also progressing rapidly. European countries are investing heavily in scientific training methods, sports science, and athlete development — which is helping them close the gap with traditional powerhouses. While Asian countries also use scientific approaches, Europe has managed to integrate and apply them more systematically in many areas.
In Asia, countries like Iran, China, Korea, and Thailand are consistently strong performers. Outside of Asia, countries like Russia, Spain, Croatia, and Azerbaijan have also made a significant impact at the Olympics and other world-level competitions. Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, too, have established themselves as serious contenders on the global stage.
From your international experience, what can Indian Taekwondo learn from these countries so that India can even become even better, India can level up in Taekwondo?
Kashish Malik: When you have a large space for improvement, the first step is to look inward. Before trying to learn from other countries, it’s important to reflect on ourselves — to identify what areas need fixing or strengthening. Taekwondo is an evolving sport, and with that constant evolution comes a vast opportunity for growth.
We need to ask: What didn’t we do well last year? What did we miss — both as a system and as individual athletes? Athletes, too, must self-reflect: What went wrong in my performance? Where was I a year ago, and where am I now? That kind of self-assessment is critical for making real progress.
Then, yes, we must also look at what leading countries are doing — and one of the key differences is in how scientifically structured their training is. But it’s not just about scientific training. It’s a complete ecosystem. It includes mental health support, proper nutrition, physical conditioning, access to sports psychologists — a full, holistic approach to athlete development.
One of the most crucial factors is exposure. Athletes in top countries are getting more match experience. More matches mean more exposure, more experience, and with experience comes greater mental and physical confidence. It’s all interconnected — performance, confidence, and growth stem from consistent, high-level competition.
If we begin by fixing what’s in our control and then learn from the global best practices, we can truly elevate our standards and compete at the highest levels.
You have very openly said on other platforms that Indian players, Indian athletes, irrespective of the sport they pursue, they /need sports psychologists. Why is that?
Kashish Malik: I strongly believe that India needs sports psychologists — not just in Taekwondo, but across all sports. Taekwondo, being a martial art, often appears to rely mostly on physical ability. But in reality, it requires just as much mental strength. To produce world-class, elite athletes, India must invest equally in mental well-being alongside physical training.
From my experience, and from what I’ve observed among many athletes, there’s often a noticeable gap. They perform exceptionally well during training and in pre-match preparations. But when it comes to the actual competition — especially at the international level, facing top-tier opponents — there’s a mental block that holds them back. I’m not referring to domestic matches; I’m talking about world-class competitions where the pressure is at its peak.
That mental block can be the difference between winning and losing, and it’s something that needs serious attention. A trained sports psychologist can play a crucial role in helping athletes overcome these blocks. They help unlock an athlete’s true potential by addressing performance anxiety, self-doubt, and pressure — all of which are as important as physical preparation. If we want to consistently compete and win at the global level, mental conditioning has to be treated as a fundamental part of the training process — not an afterthought.
Every athlete has faced setbacks in their career. You yourself have faced a few setbacks in your career. On a personal level, how do you deal with the setbacks and what do you do to keep yourself motivated?
Kashish Malik: Being a woman in a sport like Taekwondo in India comes with its own set of unique challenges.
One of the biggest barriers is societal perception. In India, people often have a fixed image of what sports women should pursue — badminton, tennis, or maybe athletics. There’s an unspoken rule: if you’re a woman, you’re expected to choose certain “acceptable” sports. But the idea that a woman can excel in a highly physical, traditionally male-dominated sport like Taekwondo? That still surprises many people.
This mindset is the first major challenge. We need to break that stereotype and prove that gender doesn’t define ability. A woman can be just as strong, skilled, and capable — mentally and physically — as a man in any sport. We can represent our country on the global stage and win, regardless of the discipline.
Another major challenge is that Taekwondo, despite being an Olympic sport, is still emerging in India. And with that comes a huge issue: lack of funding and sponsorship. I’ve been ranked fifth in the Grand Slam — a major international achievement. But when you compare that to someone like Sania Mirza, who also played at the Grand Slam level in tennis, the difference in support is massive.
She received the recognition, sponsorships, and media coverage — not just because of her performance, but because tennis is a more established and widely-followed sport. In Taekwondo, even when we achieve something remarkable, we still struggle to secure sponsors and financial support. We have to fight twice as hard — once on the mat and once off it.
And that’s where it feels unjust. If two athletes achieve something at the same level, they should be rewarded equally. But that’s not the reality. In emerging sports like Taekwondo, we often go unnoticed, no matter how hard we work or how far we go. Still, that doesn’t stop us. It only pushes us to prove ourselves even more.
So if I may ask, as a person, as an athlete, what is your biggest strength and what is your weakness that you would like to polish to become a better Taekwondo player?
Kashish Malik: I’d say it’s my mindset. And interestingly, it’s also my biggest weakness. The mind is a powerful thing — it can be your greatest ally or your worst enemy.
For me, when I’m in the right mindset — focused, consistent, and resilient — nothing can break me. That mental strength becomes an unstoppable force. It helps me show up every single day, push through pain, fatigue, or failure, and keep moving forward. That’s the strength I rely on.
But the mind can also work against you. The moment your rhythm breaks, the moment doubt or hesitation creeps in, everything can fall apart. You start questioning yourself — whether it’s skipping training, hesitating before a competition, or simply not giving your 100%. And most of the time, that break doesn’t come from the body — it comes from the mind.
Whether it’s showing up to training after an exhausting session, waking up early despite being sore, or pushing yourself through an injury — no one else truly cares. The world doesn’t stop for you. It’s you who has to care. And if your mind is strong enough to say, “Get up. Show up. Keep going,” that’s where your real power lies.
But the moment your mind says, “It’s okay, take a break. Skip this one,” it starts becoming your enemy. That’s the dual nature of the mind — it can lift you or limit you.
So for me, mastering my mind is everything. If I stay aligned mentally, I believe I can overcome any challenge. But if I lose that connection, it affects everything — my training, my performance, and my purpose That’s why I always say: your mind is your most powerful tool — use it right, and you can achieve anything.
For our readers, could you highlight how expensive the sport could be?
Kashish Malik: Taekwondo is an Olympic sport, and there are primarily two ways to qualify for the Olympics — through official qualification tournaments and by improving your international ranking. To improve your ranking, you have to compete in open-ranking tournaments held across Asia, Europe, and other regions.
But these tournaments are entirely self-funded unless you have solid sponsorship support. You have to cover your own flight tickets, registration fees, accommodation, food — everything. Let’s say you plan to compete in a European tournament in Croatia. Just one trip can cost you around ₹2 lakhs. And that’s only for one tournament.
You need to participate in at least 5 to 8 ranking tournaments every year to make a real impact. That alone can cost you anywhere from ₹10 to ₹12 lakhs annually — and that’s only for participation.
Beyond that, you also need a proper nutritionist, high-quality food and supplements and an experienced coach. When you factor all that in, your annual expense can easily rise to ₹20–30 lakhs or more, depending on how aggressively you’re targeting the international circuit.
Taekwondo might not look like an expensive sport at first glance, but the reality is very different. From sensor socks and scoring equipment to gear that needs to be updated every 2–3 months — it adds up fast. So financially, it’s a very demanding sport.
That’s why sponsorship is crucial. The more support you receive, the more tournaments you can attend, and the higher your chances are of reaching the Olympic level. Without that support, no matter how talented you are, it becomes extremely difficult to break through on the global stage.
To conclude this interview, I would like one message from you that you wish to pass on to young boys and girls who wish to purse sports. What would that message be?
Kashish Malik: There’s one message I’d really like to pass on — especially to the youth, but honestly, to anyone. whether you’re in sports or facing challenges in any area, this applies to all of us.
It is to keep a gentle heart. No matter what you’re going through — failures, rejections, setbacks — if you can hold on to a kind heart, stay grounded in humility, and carry that inner resilience, you’re already winning.
Life will test you. But it’s how you respond that defines you. If you can face everything with strength and grace — not just for yourself, but as a tribute to your parents and the faith or God you believe in — that’s the greatest offering you can make.
So, through every high and low, protect your heart, stay humble, and never lose that quiet strength inside you. That’s where real power lives.
Prakhar Sachdeo
The Sportz Planet Desk
