HISTORY-MAKING Para-athlete Irene Mar is ranked seventh in the world following her jaw-dropping performance at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris.
Mar, who competed in Para-taekwondo was the only athlete from the Oceania region, who competed in the first week to have come close to a medal finish.
The 19-year-old former Mahatma Gandhi Memorial High School stunned the crowd at Grand Palais when she defeated highly-ranked Ukrainian athlete Yuliya Lypetska 25–3 in the women’s K44-57kg.
She progressed to the quarter-finals but lost to Gamze Gurdal of Turkey.
The Marine Science student at the University of the South Pacific went on to compete for bronze in the repechage and went down to Kazakhstan’s Kamilya Dosmalova.
Mar was also Team Fiji’s flagbearer at the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games.
She is the third woman from Fiji to compete in the sport of tae kwon do in both the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The other two women athletes are Venice Traill and Lolohea Naitasi, who competed at the Olympics in July.
