This article was in the Ottawa Sun, Saturday April 16th, 2011
“Barrhaven’s Kayla Maduk discovered she had a gift for martial arts at a young age.
Now just 15, she already outranks her older brother and her father, James. And she’s enjoying plenty of success in competitions.
“People think once you have a black belt you know everything, but it was when I finally got my black belt that I realized I know nothing,” claims Maduk, whose 11-plus years of taekwon-do training resulted in three medals for Canada at the world championships. She’s been studying taekwon-do since she was 3½, training with her brother and father.
“I fell in love with it watching them,” said Maduk. “At the time, they didn’t let kids as young as me start. So I started doing mostly stretching and exercises. By the time I was five, I was starting normal classes. I’ve heard I was a natural. As I progress, though, I realize how much I still have to learn.”
While the Maduks are all black belts, Kayla is the only one still competing.
“She’s a senior belt now. I have to bow to her,” said her father.
Earlier this month, in New Zealand, Maduk won gold for Junior Female Patterns 2nd Dan and brought home silver medals, in Junior Female Sparring Hyper over 60 kg, previous World Champion and Junior Female Team Power Breaking with teammates Maxine Noel and Miranda Seifert.
It was the first time travelling to an international competition for Maduk, the youngest female member of the team.
“It was really cool being in another part of the world,” she said. “It was really mind blowing to represent Canada there.”
Maduk plans to continue honing her craft. She hopes to continue to be involved in sports in some aspect, even when she is done high school,
“I want to be in a sports environment. It’s a cool atmosphere.”