John Christakos

Educator

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Raised in Bay Ridge, John attended P.S. 104 and Fort Hamilton High School and graduated with honors from both schools in 1982 and in 1986 respectively. During his time as a student at these schools, after school and on weekends, he would practice the art of Taekwon-Do at a local Karate School called Kim’s Taekwon-Do. He achieved black belt status at a young age and competed in many local tournaments, winning several trophies for sparring, patterns, and board-breaking techniques. The most notable tournament he competed in annually was S. Henry Cho’s All-American Open at Madison Square Garden.

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With his success as a martial artist, John and a few of his fellow martial artists opened the Original Taekwon-Do School in Park Slope in 1988; offering affordable self-defense classes to low income residents in the area. By 1990, they opened a second location in Sunset Park.

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While John attended Kingsborough Community College from 1986 to 1988, he expanded his competitions to include tournaments along the eastern coast and as far west as Colorado, winning several gold medals and being recognized as an elite Taekwon-Do competitor.

 

In 1987, he competed in his first international tournament in General Choi’s Cup in Puerto Rico, receiving a bronze medal in men’s sparring. At that event, he was noticed by the United States Taekwon-Do Federation and asked to try out for the United States Taekwon-Do Team.

 

The following year, in John’s first attempt to be on the team, he was selected to represent the United States in the 6th International Taekwon-Do World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, winning a silver medal in individual men’s sparring. That same year, the team was invited to represent the United States in Yugoslavia’s Goodwill Games where, along with the Yugoslavian Team, the United States Team demonstrated the art of Taekwon-Do, by displaying fighting and board-breaking techniques.

 

In 1989, John made the team again and traveled to North Korea, a place where no United States citizen had been since the end of the Korean War. He won second place in men’s sparring and won first place in Team Power Breaking and Team Specialty Breaking.