Marlène Harnois

Who is Marlène Harnois?

Marlène Olivia Harnois is a Canadian-born French taekwondo athlete and Olympic medalist. In addition she is European champion, World University champion and World Taekwondo Championships medalist.

Harnois was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She became a Canadian Junior National champion at the age of 11. Two years later, she won Bronze at the World Junior Taekwondo Championships. Invited by the French Taekwondo Federation, she moved to France in 2001 to train for a period of one year, returning to Canada afterwards where she gave up the sport for almost four years. She returned to France in 2006 to resume her taekwondo career, becoming a French citizen in April 2008 and winning the European Championships a few days later.

She won a Gold medal at both the European Championships in 2008 and 2012 and a Bronze medal at the European Championships in 2010.

She won a Bronze medal at the 2011 World Taekwondo Championships in Women's featherweight.

In 2011, she won the Universiades Games in Shenzen by beating the World Champion, Yuzhuo Hou, from China at home in the final match. During that season, she also won the US Open, Russia Open and Israel Open.