Bashir Taraki is a legend within Taekwondo circles in Afghanistan and has over the years not only won countless titles but in recent times has trained many champions.

Taraki first started Taekwondo under the guidance of Monir Ahmad, one of the founders of the sport in Afghanistan, in 1990.

Between 1990 and 1997 Taraki went from strength to strength and notched up many titles and in 1999 he represented his country at an international championships in India and bagged the gold medal.

After the fall of the Taliban in 2001, Taraki moved on to become the national team coach.

Since then he has trained athletes and remains committed to improving the sport in his country.

“We try day and night and we change the hopes and aspirations of the Afghan people and turn the taekwondo athletes dreams into reality. Twice we got medals at the Olympics, by Rohullah Nikpai, and this brought tears of joy to the people’s eyes and at least we were a little comforted,” said Taraki.

As the coach of the national team, Taraki has seen many of his athletes achieve top awards at international championships.

He said that among the medals his athletes have brought home include a bronze medal from the Asian games by Nesar Ahmad Bahave in 2006; a silver medal from the World Championships in 2007 - again by Bahave – silver and bronze medals from the World Teenage Championship in 2008 by Sayyed Hassan Rezaei and Mahmood Haidari respectively; a bronze medal from the 2008 Olympic Games – which was the first medal in the history of Afghanistan at an Olympics. The athlete who won this was Rohullah Nikpai.

The next Olympic Games medal was another bronze in London in 2012 – again by Nikpai. In 2016, six gold and one silver and one bronze were brought home from the South Asian Games.

“Over the past few years, Afghanistan has won outstanding medals from overseas tournaments which was the result of the efforts of our coaches and we will never forget their efforts and hard work,” said Nikpai.

In addition to his hard work and commitment to the national team, Taraki also got his bachelor’s degree from Kabul Education University of Rabbani in 2006.

In all, Afghanistan’s Taekwondo Federation, which was established in 2001, has since bagged in total almost 200 gold, silver and bronze medals from regional, Asian, and Olympic games.