Dara Who?
Posted July 18 at 12:46 pm by Mike Seely
Unlike the World Series, where North American baseball teams disingenuously claim to be the greatest on earth, the World Tang Soo Do Championships that took place in Orlando, Fla. this past July 11 and 12 were the real deal. To wit, frontrunners at this martial arts competition hailed from the Netherlands, Mozambique, Puerto Rico, Great Britain, and…West Seattle.
The local champ is Tamela Thomas, a 48-year-old (she’s got it all over Dara Torres) mother of one who works as a manager at the Washington Athletic Club by day. By night, she and her 10-year-old son, Tug, venture to the Evergreen Tang Soo Do Academy on California Avenue, where they train under the tutelage of Master Steve Elmore (SW photog ‘Lil Scoop trains at the same studio). After overcoming severe migraines to finish first in forms and third in sparring at the Region 1 championships in Roseburg, Ore. on May 24, Thomas (pictured above with Elmore) completed a first-place sweep of the red belt (two below black, one up from brown) sparring, forms, and weapons competitions in Orlando, thus earning the distinction of senior (35+) women's champion for the entire tournament, save for the black belt class, which doles out its own set of honors.
According to Elmore, that’s never happened—not at his studio, not in Seattle, and not even in the multi-state region Evergreen competes in. Says Elmore of his prize-winning pupil: "After she won, she felt like she didn't deserve it. She showed great humility. She was already thinking about how she could do better, even though she won everything."
While Thomas is thrilled with the recognition, she insists that she didn’t achieve what she set out to accomplish in Florida. "It would have to be the tops as far as my athletic achievements, for sure. But my goal was to move like Master Elmore, like this powerful, nimble, graceful gazelle, which is what I see when he moves. I don't feel like I moved the way I wanted to. I still have a long way to go."
Topics: Martial Arts
