Ryan O鈥橬eil hopes to spend 2020 competing and completing.
The competition: suiting up for Canada in karate at the Tokyo Olympic Games. The completion: his fifth year as an Industrial Engineering student at Dal.
鈥淚t would be a dream to go to the 2020 Tokyo Games,鈥� says Ryan, originally from Halifax. 鈥淥nce I heard karate was added as an official Olympic sport, I was like, 鈥榤y focus is karate and trying to get to the Olympics 鈥欌��
Competing in karate at the 2020 games may be Ryan鈥檚 goal for the future, but the 22-year-old has already seen martial arts success on the world stage, recently winning his third consecutive gold medal at the 2019 International Taekwondo Federation World Championships in Inzell, Germany.
鈥淚t felt really good,鈥� says Ryan. 鈥淚 worked really hard to try and stay on the top.鈥�
Putting in the work
His work ethic extends from his martial arts training to his studies at Dalhousie. 鈥淢y dad taught me to work hard for what you want. Hard work is useful in everything. I learned that first in taekwondo, but it translates to school.鈥�
Balancing being a full-time engineering student and competing in both karate and taekwondo globally isn鈥檛 always easy for Ryan, but he says his hard work is paying off in the long run. 鈥淚 get home, I study and then I go train. Then I study some more and after that I go to sleep. Some might think that it鈥檚 not a whole lot of fun, but for me training is fun.鈥�
Ryan has been training in martial arts since he was young, beginning taekwondo when he was four and karate at age ten, 鈥淭aekwondo focuses on kicking,鈥� says Ryan. 鈥渨hereas karate really focuses on hand-speed and punching. My dad told me, 鈥榊ou want to get really good at Taekwondo? You need to train other martial arts as well.鈥欌��
An eye towards Tokyo
To qualify for the Summer Games in Tokyo, Ryan needs to place in the top three of his weight class at a qualification tournament in Paris. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of international tournaments,鈥� says Ryan. 鈥淏ecause Engineering is a pretty intensive program, I don鈥檛 really have the ability to miss that much school and to go to these tournaments. For me there鈥檚 going to be a tournament coming up in Paris in 2020. They鈥檙e going to send one person from every country who has not already qualified, so that鈥檚 going to be my only chance.鈥�
Ryan says the secret to balancing his studies with competing is simple. 鈥淭ime management is key. Make sure you know what you want to do, then set up a map on how to get there.鈥�