Athletes

Nia Abdallah is an Olympic medal-winning taekwondo athlete. She earned a bronze in the lightweight division at the 2007 World Championships in Beijing. She took home the gold medal in the lightweight division at the 2007 national collegiate championships. In 2006, Abdallah captured the gold in the welterweight division at the national collegiate championships and at the U.S. Open. In the same year, she won silver medals via the lightweight division at the Pan Am Championships and forms division at the Dutch Open. She earned a silver medal in the lightweight division at the 2005 U.S. senior nationals. She was named USA Taekwondo's 2004 Female Athlete of the Year. In her Olympic debut in 2004, Abdallah earned the silver medal. She captured the bronze medal in her first Pan American Games experience in 2003. That year also saw Abdallah win gold medals in the forms/sparring division at the U.S. Open and sparring division at the Peru Open. She also won silver medals in the 2003 U.S. senior nationals in both the forms and sparring divisions and the gold in the sparring division at the 2002 Quebec Open. At the 2002 U.S. Open, she took the gold in the sparring and silver in the forms divisions. At the 2001 U.S. senior nationals, she captured the gold in both divisions Abdallah earned her first major international win in 1997 at the 11th Annual U.S. Cup Taekwondo Championships where she captured a gold medal in breaking. Abdallah's ultimate goal is to be the first U.S. woman to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games in taekwondo. She has won 14 Texas state championships (forms and sparring) and four Junior Olympic gold medals (forms and sparring). Abdallah began taekwondo at the age of 9 and is a third-degree black belt. She is a graduate of George Washington Carver High School for Applied Technology, Engineering and the Arts.(11/07)