MAPLE GROVE, Minn. — Ava Lee has trained in the art of Taekwondo her entire life.
One could argue, it's in her blood.
"My grandpa was sent over by the Korean government in 1968," said Lee. "So he started to teach Taekwondo here in America and then founded World Taekwondo Academy in 1969."
Her dad, Grandmaster, Eui Lee, got her started early at the age of two.
Now 18 years old, Ava is one of the most decorated taekwondo athlete to come out of the state of Minnesota.
With her dad's guidance, she's won Pan American Championships, placed second at the PanAm Game Championships, and her biggest win of all, the Cadet World Championships. The only Minnesotan to win and only the fifth kid from the United States to do it, not bad for someone who just graduated from high school.
"Ever since I was young," said Ava. "I've been very competitive, and I think winning the youth and the cadet, that stuff, it gives me just a little taste of the professional, like what I want, so I think that kind of drives me because I've won the smaller stuff, but I want to be able to win the stuff on the adult stage."
And she's not the only in the family competing on some of the biggest stages. Her sisters are also advanced in the sport.
"They're great role models for me, even the little one is my role model. The older one, Lauren, she went to the Olympics."
She says her little sister, Jessica, is also a beast.
All three sisters have one thing in common: Eui as their coach.
"He's hard on me in training," said Ava. "But I think that's why I'm so good because he's so hard on me, and I think he's only hard on me because he cares. As soon as we go home, it's like father-daughter, normal. We don't talk about training, taekwondo, but we are close because of it."
A relationship both father and daughter can appreciate.
"It's been amazing because we get to do things as a family, train together, travel together, where most parents have got a job where they don't get to spend too much time with their kids," said Eui. "So I think it's been a big blessing for me and my family to spend so much time together."
"I'm kind of biased," said Ava. "But I feel like my family is closer than most families because we are just with each other all the time and it's also taught me things like respect and, like, I've got travel and see other cultures that I don't think I'd be able to experience without the sport, so yeah."
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