Aziz Acharki

German taekwondo practitioner Aziz Acharki was born in Morocco but came to Germany at a very young age. He narrowly missed a medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics when he lost his featherweight repêchage bout to Austrian Tuncay Caliskan to reach the bronze medal match. In 1993 Acharki won a bronze medal at the World Championships and in 1995 a gold medal as his greatest success internationally. He also won the World Military Championships in 2001 and 2002 and earned silver medals in 1996 and 1999.

At European Championships, Acharki won gold medals in 1996 and 2000, and the bronze medal in 1994. From 1997-2001 he won the German nationals. In Germany, he was one of the most prominent taekwondo practitioners ever.

After his active time Acharki turned to coaching and was Germany’s chief national coach from 2010-16, before he became chief national coach of Saudi Arabia from 2017-18. He was awarded several prizes by North Rhine-Westfalian organisations and his hometown of Bonn.