Nathalie Iliesco

Biography

Nathalie Iliesco stood on the podium at her first ever international competition, winning silver at the 2013 Dutch Open. That was an eventful year for her as she also debuted at the WTF World Championships, reaching the top 16, and participated in her first Grand Prix event in Manchester. In 2014 she won her first international gold medal at the Mexico Open and added silver medals at the Commonwealth Championships and Pan Am Open. She started off 2015 with a silver medal at the Canada Open before competing at her second world championships.

PERSONAL

Family: Parents Serge Iliesco and Nadia Parker… Older brother Christopher is also a member of the 2015 Pan Am Games taekwondo team… Getting into the Sport: Started taekwondo at age 4… Her father always loved martial arts and is a black belt in judo and taekwondo… After her brother was introduced to taekwondo, she wanted to imitate him and try it as well… Outside Interests: Studying urban planning at UQAM… Enjoys doing hot yoga, drawing, photography, swimming, hiking, travelling… Works part-time at a day care… Odds and Ends: Nickname: Nat… Inspired by Roxane Forget who won world championship silver in 1997 and proved that women could also be great fighters… Always buys chocolate Vector bars for the day of competition… Always travels with her notebook… Collects money and keychains from her travels… Favourite motto: “If you want, you can!”

NOTABLE INTERNATIONAL RESULTS

WTF WCh: 2015 – Rd of 32 (73kg); 2013 – Rd of 16 (67kg)