What it’s like to compete – and medal – at the taekwon-do world championships as a journalist

CNN photojournalist Li-Lian Ahlskog Hou, left, scores a kick at the International Taekwon-do Federation World Championships in October. Courtesy Marcin Doniesiewicz

“It’s time to retire soon, isn’t it?”

As we walk from an arena where we just competed to our hotel, the question is casually asked to my teammate who is more than five years younger than me.

I stay silent and try to hold a blank expression to hide any potential wrinkles. It’s hard enough not to think about the fact that I’m almost 20 years older than many of my opponents.

For the past five years, I’ve been part of the English National Team in the International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF). The hyphen in ‘taekwon-do’ distinguishes our martial art from World Taekwondo , which is the Olympic sport.

Looking up ITF Taekw