Henk Meijer

Henk Meijer (born 22 July 1959) is a Dutch taekwondo coach and former Olympic taekwondo competitor. He was the men's heavyweight champion at the 7th World Taekwondo Championships in 1985, becoming the first non-Korean to win a world title in taekwondo in South Korea. He was Olympic taekwondo coach for the Netherlands at the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics, and was later national taekwondo coach for France. In February 2010, he began working as Head Coach for the Greek Taekwondo Federation.

Early life

Meijer was born on 22 July 1959 in Winschoten, Netherlands. In WTF competition in 1982, he became European Heavyweight Champion, and won both the Dutch National Championships and the Dutch Open Championships. He also took charge of the taekwondo school he had been training at from his instructor, Bos. becoming the first non-Korean to win a world title in South Korea. That same year, he competed at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, where taekwondo made its first Olympic Games appearance as a demonstration sport; this was the last time he participated as a competitor. Meijer later wrote, "Although I lost my 2nd fight against my big opponent and good friend Michael Arndt from Germany, it was a beautiful finish of my career as a competitor." Meijer was the Dutch taekwondo team's coach for the 2000 Summer Olympics and the 2004 Summer Olympics. Under his guidance, French taekwondo competitors won gold, silver, and bronze at the 2006 European Championships in Bonn. On 1 February 2010, Meijer took on the position of Head Coach for the Greek Taekwondo Federation, having made the decision to leave his Australian coaching commitments. Apart from his taekwondo competition experience and rank, he holds a master's degree in sports coaching, which he earned in the Netherlands.