Three sports, one journey
World Championship titles, major decisions, and a career in teaching – The story of Petra Mucsy
Not many athletes can say that they have built themselves up from three such different worlds. Tennis taught her individual responsibility, basketball showed her how to think as part of a team, while taekwondo—in addition to European and world championship titles —taught her to master herself. In Petra Mucsy’s story, these are not separate stages, but chapters that build upon one another. And today, as a physical education teacher, she draws precisely from this triad.
Her first love wasn't taekwondo, but tennis. In her family, her father played tennis: he played in NB I/B, then in NB II, so the sport became a natural environment for Petra as well. She was introduced to the sport by Attila Vizkelety.
“Tennis wasn’t a cheap sport even back then, but we weren’t in a financial position to afford it. If we look purely at my attitude, I think I could have gone far, but that’s history now”
– says Petra Mucsi of Veszprém, who made her mark in the annals of Hungarian sports as a world and European taekwondo champion.
At the same time, she became a huge fan of action movies that focused on martial arts. She loved the films of Jean-Claude Van Damme, Jackie Chan, and Bruce Lee, even plastering her bedroom walls with their posters. As she puts it: “I liked the action.” She was looking for the sport she saw in these movies when she stumbled upon the training sessions of Veszprém taekwondo master Géza Gosztolai.
“Now even my parents agree with me when I say I wasn’t an easy kid. But Uncle Géza and his training sessions did me a world of good; they kept me on the right track. They taught me discipline, perseverance, and self-control. Those training sessions were more like military boot camp, but they gave me so much. Uncle Géza shaped us into adults. I don’t think many of today’s kids would be able to hold their own there,”
– Petra recounts.
Presumably, the master also sensed that he had found a gem, because Petra advanced through the belt exams with double promotions, facing continuous challenges which she always met—albeit sometimes pushing her limits.
She hit rock bottom at Lovassy High School. She started playing basketball at school and was so talented that she made it onto the extended roster of the cadet national team. At that time, she also took up horseback riding as a third sport, so taekwondo took a back seat. However, she would have been unable to break away from it or give it up.
Then, at the age of 16, came the breakthrough: she was invited to join the national team and immediately won a bronze medal at the European Championships in taekwondo. However, Petra does not consider this her first real major success, but rather the gold medal she won as an adult at the continental championships in Maribor.
“This competition is very memorable for me. Everything just clicked here; I was in perfect physical and mental condition, and my mental game was very strong—no one else could have won that event back then. On top of that, we also won the gold medal as a team—it was a phenomenal feeling,”
– she recalls.
Later, in Quebec, Canada, she won a silver and a bronze medal. By then, she felt she’d had enough of taekwondo; she tried to retire for three years, but was unable to quit. Not everything went well for her physically, but mentally she became more experienced and mature, and whatever he might have missed in her youth, she made up for it through her play at this stage. At the 2019 World Championships in Inzell, she reached the pinnacle once again, winning team gold in the team sprint with Tamara Süli, Veronika Kosztyu, and Nikolett Bécsi. Here, Petra executed the most technically demanding routine in a particularly strong field, and with an extra level of difficulty, so she was able to retire from professional sports with peace of mind.
Of course, she cannot and does not want to break away from taekwondo and sports. She coaches at Darazsak Taekwondo Club in Veszprém, which she founded in 2011 with her sports friend Róbert Gipp, and she has also returned to basketball and tennis. In basketball, she became a two-time Fejér County champion with the VESC senior women’s team. In tennis, she competes in smaller doubles tournaments. She says she was so nervous during her first such test of her skills that she didn’t recognize herself, but after two matches, she got back on track. In addition, as a physical education teacher—at her former high school, Lovassy—she is also involved in sports.
“Young people today operate differently. I love to compete. They approach everything with a hobbyist’s attitude; they simply don’t want to step out of their comfort zone. The training we’ve done can’t be imposed on them. Generally, they aren’t interested in challenges or being tested. Yet there’s no way to get out of the work,”
– she emphasizes.
Petra says that many people consider her strict because she maintains discipline in class and has high expectations. While she has found that discipline gives many students structure, provides direction, and helps even troubled kids find their place. The biggest challenge for her, however, is communicating with her students. Petra is a strong-willed, straightforward woman who knows she can’t please everyone. She stands by her principles and doesn’t want to betray herself, yet she harbors some doubt about whether a particular sentence, statement, or request might be interpreted by her students differently than what it actually means. Young people often interpret what she means to say differently. Yet Petra believes the direction is clear: the path leads toward sports.
“It’s definitely worth encouraging kids to get into sports. Sports give structure to your day, help develop and shape your personality, and define your life. I hope I set a good example for my students and that there will be those who follow in my footsteps,”
– she says.
Author: Rita Bényi-Virág