A local physical education teacher returned from the birthplace of taekwondo with gold around his neck.

Bret Mischlich, a P.E. teacher at Palmer Lake Elementary School since 2004 who established an after-school taekwondo program there, returned from Muju, South Korea earlier this month where he competed in the 2023 Asian Pacific Master Games at the Taeknowdowon Center.

Aspiring to show his own children and his students how hard work and determination can earn success, Mischlich won the gold medal at the games by an 18-3 final against Japan.

Last July, Mischlich competed at the 2022 Amatuer Athletics Union (AAU) National TaeKwonDo Championship in Las Vegas. Having won the tournament, it earned him a place on the USA AAU national team and the invitation to compete at the 2023 Asian Pacific Masters Games. The teacher and taekwondo

trainer said the Asia Pacific Masters Games is the biggest tournament in the world for athletes over the age of 33 years. He saw the tournament as his personal Olympics and participating in it at that level would be a dream come true for him.

“My trip to Korea was an amazing experience from beginning to end,” Mischlich said. “It was a true honor to visit the birthplace of taekwondo.”

The Masters Games consists of A and B class divisions and the A class is reserved for national team members and international medalists. Being in the A division, Mischlich knew his opponent in the finals would be a quality fighter, he said. He said his opponent from the Japan team was slightly taller than himself, but Mischlich had studied video of the opponent’s training prior to arriving in Korea.

“I felt that I would have a power advantage and knew that if I fought my game, I would be difficult to beat,” Mischlich said.

However, the scoring system used during the tournament was a Korean manufactured electronic pressurized system, known as KPNP, and scoring to the body while using this system can be difficult, Mischlich said.

The foot must land clean and hard on the chest protector in order to register a score, he said. With taekwondo being 70% kicking techniques, body kicks were worth two points and head kicks were worth three.

“My plan was to create the openings needed in order to land valuable head kicks,” he said. “During the first round,

I noticed my opponent had good defense. He was jamming my attacks but also doing a lot of holding.”

The first round ended with Mischlich ahead 1-0 after his opponent lost a point for grabbing. Between rounds, Mischlich’s coach Peter Baradatsos advised him how to create the appropriate distance and avoid getting jammed while attempting head kicks. One minute into Round 2, Mischlich saw his opportunity and landed a solid axe kick to his opponent’s face.

“From that point forward, I began to fall into my fight zone,” he said.

Mischlich finished the second round with a 10-0 lead and continued to command the fight through Round 3 by landing two more head kicks and finishing with his 18-3 gold-medal victory.

Adversity for the eventual gold medalist did not begin when Mischlich entered the Taekwondowon but rather it started in the United States attempting to travel to South Korea. His journey started with a one-hour delayed flight from Denver to Dallas, forcing him to sprint to barely connect with his international flight to Korea.

After a 15-hour flight from Dallas to Korea, Mischlich had to catch a bus to travel an additional four hours in order to pick up his competition credentials, he said. Credentials in hand, he then had to catch a different bus for a three-hour ride to the competition venue in Muju.

Mischlich’s lodging, to which he arrived at 1 a.m. and exhausted, at the Taekwondowon was about a quarter mile from the competition venue. Too wired to sleep well, he was up at 6:30 a.m. to perform his usual stretching routine and positive meditation. After taking photos with the USA Team, he weighed in for competition at 2 p.m.

Having been told he would fight at 10:30 a.m. the following morning, Mischlich opted to not attend the Games’ opening ceremonies.

“Getting to the ceremonies would have meant an additional six-hour round trip on a crowded bus and another late night arrival back at the room,” he said. “My body needed rest.”

Mischlich said he slept approximately 10 hours that night.

After the games, having experienced the countryside of Korea in the mountains of Muju, Mischlich was able to visit the city of Seoul and toured the Kukkiwon, also known as the World Taekwondo Headquarters as well as other sightseeing before making the trek home.

Having returned with the gold medal, Mischlich hopes his students follow his example of hard work, discovering self belief and never giving up on chasing dreams, he said.

“My purpose is to expose kids to a wide variety of physical activity in hopes they will discover an interest that makes them active for life,” Mischlich said. “Taekwondo is the activity I am most passionate about and I am blessed to be able to share this passion with my students. I hope that my students take away joy from physical activity.”