OLYMPIC REVIEW73LONDON 2012How old are you and what is yourdream?I'm 18 years old and my dream is to win agold medal at the Olympic Games. I won't be happyunless I fulfill this dream.How did you choose Taekwondo as your sport?During my childhood, I was a great fan ofwrestling, and I really wanted to be a wrestler butsince there was no wrestling club in our vicinity, myparents registered me in a taekwondo class. I wasnine years old when I started to compete inchildren's competitions and then I progressedthrough various youth leagues.What is your main goal for participatingin the 2012 London Olympic Games?My main goal is to win a gold medal, ofcourse, and I will not settle for anything less thanthis. Everything I do over the next two years isgeared to achieving this end - I will be approachingLondon with nothing less than total dedication.Could you tell us about your trainingschedule in the run-up to the Games?At present, I train twice a day - in the morning and in the evening. Part of my programme is devoted to body conditioning, and the evening Imostly spend practicing technique. In fact, you couldsay I'm in a 24-hour training camp!Do you know much about the athletes youwill be competing against in London?In my weight category I have three major rivalswho I think I will be competing for the gold medalwith me - they are Joel Gonzalez from Spain,Afghanistan's Hasan Rezai and Guillermo Pérez fromMexico, who won the gold medal in Beijing.Who else is in your training camp fromyour National Team?We have a very strong taekwondo team inIran. My team-mates who train with me are BehzadKhodadad, Mohammad Motamed, and Ali NasrAbadani. Behzad is a former world champion in theflyweight category and Mohammad is the currentworld champion in the featherweight section so I can learn so much each day by training with them. Who is your role model in your career?Undoubtedly Hadi Saii who is a world andOlympic champion. He competed in the 68 kg(featherweight) at the 2004 Olympic Games and won the gold medal. Then he fought in the 80 kgcategory in Beijing four years later and won hissecond Olympic gold. There is no athlete moredecorated than him in Iran.Tell us about your personal interests.What sort of music you listen to?I like Iranian classical music the best. I have toadmit that I'm not interested in pop music at all!TAEKWONDO MEISAMBAGHERITHE TALENTED TEENAGE IRANIAN IS LOOKING TO CONTINUE HIS COUNTRY'SFINE TRADITION IN THE SPORT AT THE LONDON GAMES AFTER WINNING THE BRONZE MEDAL AT THIS YEAR'S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS AQAQAQAQAQAQAQAQ

TM74OLYMPIC REVIEWMY GAMESEver since I was a little girl I wanted to competein the Olympic Games. It had been my dreamfor so long and while I was excited in the runup to the Beijing Games, as the time drew closer Ibecame more and more nervous because we reallywanted to win a medal for Singapore. The lead-up to the Games was spent practising,practising and practising and we couldn't have beenbetter prepared. We wanted to win a medal. I wanted to win gold but told myself that silver or bronze would also be special.Our first match of the tournament was against theteam from the US. I was nervous watching Wang Yueguplay first. It is hard watching your teammates play butshe did really well. We won all our group matches 3-0,which may seem easy but it wasn't. The Americanteam was a strong team.Our coach kept telling us that we had to believe inour ability and ourselves if we wanted to win a medal.His words were very important throughout thetournament and he always managed to say the rightthings to calm us all down at key times.The support from my teammates was also important.We are all such good friends and were alwaystogether -we trained together, we rested together,we ate together and when we finished competing, wewent shopping together.Before the semi-final match against South Korea, myhand was shaking and my knees were shaking. Wewere so close to winning a medal and I couldn't stopshaking. We were very pleased with our victory overSouth Korea but there was no time to celebrate as wehad a big challenge the next day in the final againstChina. At this stage we were guaranteed at least a silvermedal so there was less pressure - and less shaking!Despite losing the match to China, I enjoyed theexperience of the final. Playing in an Olympic final feltlike a dream to me. There were so many Singaporeanfans in the crowd cheering us on and that gave us all a big boost. I was very excited and happy for the peopleof Singapore and when we arrived back home lots ofpeople wanted to talk to us, shake our hands andcongratulate us. All I can think about now is trying to winanother medal in London, but this time a gold medal! ?RightConcentration is etched on Feng Tianwei'sface in BeijingMYGAMESFENGTIANWEIALONG WITH TEAMMATES LI JIAWEI AND WANG YUEGU, FENG TIANWEI ENDEDSINGAPORE'S 48 YEAR WAIT FOR AN OLYMPIC MEDAL BY CLAIMING SILVER IN THE WOMEN'S TABLE TENNIS TEAM EVENT AT BEIJING IN 2008INTERVIEW:PATRICK JOHNSTONBEIJING 2008Silver: Women's table tennis