The Kid Kicks Butt: Bristow Girl Named Taekwondo Champion

She's barely 12 years old, under 73 pounds and hasn’t yet cracked 5 feet. But do not be misled—this kid kicks butt. 

Lina Sbihi, a rising seventh grader at Gainesville Middle School who trains at US Tigers in Haymarket, won a gold medal in taekwondo this month in the  12-14 age division at the USA National Taekwondo Championship in Chicago.

 Perhaps the most amazing thing is that she managed to win gold after being a student of taekwondo for only one year, said Master Dennis Kim, her instructor and owner of US Tigers.

Lina was hand picked by Kim to participate in a more advance sparring, or kicking class after he noticed she had potential.

“She’s really getting her feet wet,” Kim said. “Lina is someone who has a bunch of potential, but we have a long way to go.”

Taekwondo is one of just two martial arts that are Olympic sports. Judo is the other, Kim said.  He would like to see Lina compete in the Olympics in six years or so, he added.

 “Here, we build fighters. We make champions,” said Kim who opened US Tigers about six years ago. 

Over the past year, Kim worked Lina hard to get her to that level, Hicham Sbihi, Lina’s father, said.

"Master Dennis (Kim) doesn’t mess around," the elder Sbihi said. "Really the credit goes to him first … but I think she worked hard for it.”

Her father gave her an iPhone 5 for winning the championship, Lina said.

The 12-year-old taekwondo red belt said the road to the championship was difficult.  She ran 3 to 4 miles a day and practiced 12 hours out of a six-day period.

Her first competition was at Stonewall Jackson High School, in the Manassas area of Prince William County.

She suffered defeat in her second match in New York, but recovered from the lost in a large way this month by defeating the person she lost to in the New York match, Lina and her father said.

“I was crying,” Lina said, describing her reaction to her national win. 

 Right now Lina said she and the rest of the sparring team are on a long break after competing at the championship level, but taekwondo isn’t far from her mind.

 “I have a really big (sparring) test coming up in August,” she said.

Lina will continue balancing taekwondo with her studies as she enters a new middle school in the fall.  Kim and other taekwondo enthusiasts boasts that the sport teaches self discipline and can make children better students.