Adrian Vicente Yunta ‘Taekwondo Chose Me’
〈Copyright ⓒ ROKCTV 대한민국문화뉴스티브이 채정희 편집국장 By Chief Editor CHAE JEONG-HUI = Adrian Vicente Yunta ‘Taekwondo Chose Me’ / 사진 세계태권도연맹. 재판매 및 DB 금지. AI 학습 이용 금지〉
〈ROKCTV 대한민국문화뉴스티브이〉 채정희 편집국장 By Chief Editor CHAE JEONG-HUI = Some humans never work out why they are here on Earth. Others realize their mission early in life.
Put Adrian Vicente Yunta into the latter category.
“When I was 12, I saw this sport exhibition at my school,” he recalled. “I said to my mother, ‘I don’t know what this sport is, but I want it.’”
The sport, of course, was Taekwondo. And there was – happy coincidence – a gym just down the road from his home, run by Coach Miguel Angel. Vicente Yunta joined immediately.
Fast forward 14 years. The two are still together as coach and athlete, and Vicente Yunta is today a core member of Team Spain.
His medal chest is stacked with precious metal. A two-time Olympian, he also owns a World Championship gold medal – from Baku 2023 - and seven Grand Prix medals - including a gold from Roma 2023.
The latest ornament hung around his neck was a bronze earned at the Bangkok 2025 World Grand Prix Challenge.
For the 26-year-old Madrid native, the battle in Bangkok represented a triple risk.
Firstly: Post-Paris, he had taken the major leap, moving up a weight category, from -58kg to -68kg. As any combat sport athlete knows, just a couple of kilos makes a huge differential in power – whether absorbing it and delivering it.
“After the Olympics, my mind was stopped, I had to change,” he said. “So I moved up a category.”
Secondly: The Grand Prix Challenge is an unusual format that pits Taekwondo’s Olympian elite against hungry young guns. For any top-ranked athlete to lose against a non-ranked player could be a loss of both face and confidence.
Even so, the event offered valuable experience. “I needed to train this new category,” he said. “I needed to do some fights!”
〈Copyright ⓒ ROKCTV 대한민국문화뉴스티브이 채정희 편집국장 By Chief Editor CHAE JEONG-HUI = Adrian Vicente Yunta ‘Taekwondo Chose Me’ / 사진 세계태권도연맹. 재판매 및 DB 금지. AI 학습 이용 금지〉
Thirdly: In his medal match, he would find himself facing an opponent he had lost to three weeks earlier at the Wuxi Grand Slam: Kazakhstan’s Samirkhon Ababakirov.
So when he armored up, stalked onto the field of play and faced his bigger opponent, he had a game plan.
“The strategy was to stay very close to him with very good blocks and choose good timing to kick – but it is very risky to fight close against these kinds of people,” he said, gesturing over his head.
The strategy worked. After winning Round 1, he lost to the Kazak in in Round 2, so switched up the aggression in Round 3.
Seizing a decisive points lead early on in the round and maintaining it, he stemmed a final-seconds charge by Ababakirov to take a deserved victory in the third.
“My emotion was nice as, with this medal, I think I can achieve big tournaments in the -68kg and achieve my third Olympic Games,” he said. “That is my big goal and my dream – but my mentality is year to year, tournament to tournament, and fight to fight.”
In terms of fighters who inspire him, he points to Team Korea top gun, Jang Jun. “He is very clever, very good kick choices, very good movements,” he said. “Crazy!”
Like all other ranked fighters, Vicente Yunta’s sight are set on LA 2028. Beyond that, he has no plans to quit the game he started at 12: After his fighting career ends, he plans to transition to coaching.
“Taekwondo chose me - that exhibition many years ago chose me, there was a club near me, my Olympic coach was near me,” he mused. ‘I was very lucky.”
Any advice for aspiring players?
“My motto is, ‘Enjoy life, enjoy the present,’” he said. ”I am fascinated by this lifestyle – and we only have one life.”
〈Copyright ⓒ ROKCTV 대한민국문화뉴스티브이 채정희 편집국장 By Chief Editor CHAE JEONG-HUI = Adrian Vicente Yunta ‘Taekwondo Chose Me’ / 사진 세계태권도연맹. 재판매 및 DB 금지. AI 학습 이용 금지〉
채정희 편집국장 By Chief Editor CHAE JEONG-HUI
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