Zaid Kareem ready to build on Jordan's taekwondo rise at Paris Olympics

As the Jordanian men’s national football team were making their way to a historic runner-up finish in the Asian Cup, the country’s top taekwondo fighters spent time in Fujairah honing their skills ahead of this summer’s Paris 2024 Olympics.

The Fujairah Martial Arts Club hosted a training camp for several taekwondo national teams, including Jordan, Tunisia, Greece and Kazakhstan, bringing together some of the world’s most talented athletes under one roof for the kick off of the Olympic season.

Tokyo 2020 silver medallists Mohamed Khalil Jendoubi (-58kg), of Tunisia, and Saleh El Sharabaty (-80kg), of Jordan, were among those taking part, along with Jordanian 2018 Youth Olympics bronze medallist Zaid Kareem, who is currently ranked No 5 in the world in the -68kg category.

Kareem, 22, is the latest in a string of gifted Jordanians that has risen up the taekwondo ranks and populated podiums on the sport’s biggest stages over the past decade.

A silver medallist at the Asian Games in Hangzhou last October, Kareem looks primed for success in Paris this summer, where he hopes to add to Jordan’s growing medal haul in the sport.

In 2016, taekwondo fighter Ahmad Abughaush claimed Jordan’s first official medal at an Olympic Games by topping the podium in the -68kg division before El Sharabaty added a second medal five years later at Tokyo by claiming a silver medal.

Last year, Julyana Al Sadeq became the first Jordanian and Arab woman to top the world taekwondo rankings following her victory at the Saudi Grand Prix in December 2022.

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