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WEST JORDAN — Many students at National Academy Taekwondo came to learn discipline. Others came to build confidence. But it's still karate, and that means it can be very physical.
"I feel like they think it's like a boy's sport," said 16-year-old Janiry Mora, a junior at Bingham High School.
After all, girls are supposed to carry parasols and sip tea, not deliver roundhouse kicks, but there's a lot of ponytails flying around the room where she practices karate. Janiry's been doing this since she was 9.
"I kind of would get bullied sometimes," she said. "They would be like, 'Why do you do that? That's a boy's sport. Are you trying to be a boy?'"
When Janiry first enrolled, she was the only girl. Not just the only girl in her class, but also the only girl she knew of taking karate classes at all.
But Janiry stuck with it, and now she's not just a student, she's been teaching at this school for the last few months.
When asked what she does, Janiry doesn't explain by telling others about her teaching job, nor does she immediately mention her black belt. Instead, she tells them about a trip she recently took.
"When I meet people and I tell them, they're like 'No way. You don't do that,'" said Janiry. "And I'm like 'No, I really do,' and they're like, 'Wait, so how good are you?' and I'm like, 'Oh, I just went to Korea.'"
Janiry earned the opportunity to compete in Korea — the birthplace of Taekwondo — against some of the best in the entire world, taking part in the Korea Open.
"It's just a really big tournament," she said. "People from the Olympics go because they want to go back to the Olympics, so that's how they get points to go."
Mora came in fourth place individually, and brought home a third-place medal along with the rest of Team USA.
"I wasn't expecting anything," she said. "I was just expecting to gain experience. Getting a medal was really good because a lot of people don't come back with a medal."
The class she teaches is a far cry from the one she started out with — it's full of girls, and they know all about Janiry. The owner of National Taekwondo says many of them enrolled because of her, although she's predictably modest.
"I don't know about that," said Janiry with a smile. "I guess he said that."
Many students came to learn discipline or to build confidence, but many also came to be just like Janiry.
"They've seen how far I've gotten," she said. "She can actually do it, girls can actually do it. It's not just for boys."
Ray Boone is a photojournalist for KSL. He can be reached with story ideas at rboone@ksl.com.
