Portuguese taekwondo athlete Rui Bragança is a European Championships and European Games gold medallist and a World Championships finalist. In addition to representing Portugal internationally, Bragança is associated with club Sport Lisboa e Benfica, and has been ranked as high as No. 1 in the World Taekwondo rankings. He competes mostly in the 58kg or flyweight division.
Bragança began practicing taekwondo at the age of 13, and was competing at junior national level within two years. After becoming Portuguese champion in his age-group, he travelled to the 2007 European Junior Championships in Baku, where he would take bronze. Later competing on the senior circuit, he quickly began making a mark across Europe, scoring his first senior bronze medal at the Spanish Open, and later taking home golds at Opens in the Netherlands and Trelleborg. In 2011 he would make his World Championships debut in Gyeongju, where he reached the final to secure the silver medal and cemented his position on the world stage.
Over the following years, Bragança continued to give dominating performances, picking up over 30 medals at Open Tournaments, and taking his first European Championships title in 2014. The following year, he would add another title to his tally at the European Games in Baku, and took his first Grand Prix gold at that season’s meet in Samsun. In 2016, Bragança made his Olympic debit in Rio de Janeiro, where he advanced to the quarter-finals and made history as the first Portuguese athlete to win a taekwondo fight at the Olympic Games.
