When she was younger, Aniya Louissaint had a poster on the wall that said she was going to the Olympics. She and her mother were sure of it. They didn’t know which event Aniya would compete in, but it was a dream they shared.
Fast forward to these Olympic Games, where you’ll find the name of that young dreamer among the Olympians from Haiti competing in Taekwondo. She competes in the -67 kg division.
Aniya's remarkable journey began with an interest in a completely different martial art. “I was 13 and I had just gotten through watching The Karate Kid with Jaden Smith. I went to my dad and told him I wanted to join Karate. I thought he was going to take me to a couple of beginner Karate classes, but one day he brought me and my sister [Kianna] to a Taekwondo class.”
In that class, she and her sister experienced a situation similar to what Jaden Smith’s character faced in The Karate Kid – they went straight into sparring and “pretty much got beaten up by everyone there.” But just like the movie, rather than deter her from returning, it lit a fire within her.
“On the car ride back home, I asked my dad if he could train us so we could come back and redeem ourselves. That’s just what we did. By that point, I had fallen in love with the sport.”
That was 4 years ago. Since then, Aniya’s been focused on her training. Starting off at TKO Taekwondo, she trained with Carlos Tavares for about two years. There she learned the basics such as kicking and form, and also earned her black belt. In 2015, she competed nationally for the US team in both the US Open and Canada Open. That summer, she and her father Richard (who is her current coach and was born in Haiti) were approached by Haiti to fight under their flag. Thinking that she’d have more of an opportunity to get to the Olympics if she fought for Haiti, they agreed...and since then she’s been on a bit of a winning streak.
“I won the US Open, the Mexico Open, and the Canada Open. I got a bronze medal in the senior division at the Mexico Open – that’s for 18- to 32-year-olds, and I was 16. I’ve received a lot of great training.”
It was while she was fighting for the US Team that she and her father met one of Team USA’s coaches, Alvaro Mendez, who lives in Connecticut. It’s clear that Mendez has been a guiding force in Aniya’s road to the Olympics.
“Ever since we met him in late 2014, we’ve been coming to him a couple months out of the year. That’s why we’re actually here (with her team, Styles United, in Connecticut), because he’s been working with us and he’s been training me. I feel I get my best training from him.”
And that training has been rigorous. She explained her typical day:
“I wake up around 8:00 am to run at the track. I’ll run about 3 miles and some days I’ll sprint. In the afternoon, that’s when my actual Taekwondo lessons will begin. After about two hours, I begin condition drills – push-ups, sit-ups – and then I’ll run through some scenarios and also do some cardio. We’ll do kicks and then we’ll do some more scenarios and I’ll spar with training partners. After that, I go to the gym. Some days I’ll work out legs, some days I’ll work out arms. At night, that’s when we have the official Taekwondo session with all the rest of my [Styles United] teammates and sometimes we’ll spar again or we’ll work on practice that’ll help us succeed when we’re sparring in competitions.”
She acknowledges that even with all that conditioning there are days more challenging than others. Some days she has two sessions and other days she has three. On days she has three, she runs in the morning, does an intense cardio session, then has another cardio session in the evening and goes over strategy. Those days, she explains, are more challenging because she has no time to nap, which she says is very helpful in her recovery.
So how does one find the motivation to persist even on the most challenging days? Aniya’s answer is refreshingly humble.
“I train even if it’s hard because I still can’t believe I’m going. Just the fact that I’m able to go to Brazil, that’s motivation enough for me. I’m not really one to quit if something gets hard. Also, my family and my teammates are great supporters. They’re always pushing me. That’s where I get my motivation to keep going.”
One of the supporters she mentions is her sister Kianna, who holds the dual role of family member and Styles United teammate. Having started training at the same time, the two have forged a bond that’s probably tighter than anyone else in her circle.
“I always tell her that she’s my rock because whenever I am in a rut and say, ‘Oh, I can’t do this anymore, it’s hurting, my body’s in pain, I can’t go anymore’, my sister always pushes me, and the same goes for her. Whenever she’s feeling down, I’ll do the same. It’s really nice that we’re in this together. She’s the only person that really understands what I go through because she’s in the same sport, she’s in the exact same position. So I can talk to my dad or my friends and tell them I’m sore from my first session and they’ll be like, ‘Oh, yeah.’ They can sympathize, but my sister can empathize with me. So that really helps.”
In addition to Kianna, Aniya counts her father Richard and Mendez among those who've been highly influential in getting her to this point.
“My father has been doing everything he can as a father and as a coach, making me better and catering to my needs. And my trainer/coach Alvaro Mendez is always taking his time out – he holds camps to help just me, and we’ll set up different practices and workout routines just to get me better. And there have been just a whole bunch of people – my teammates and friends I’ve met during my travels that have always given me words of encouragement.”
Though there have been days when she’s felt tapped out, all that pain, she concedes, was worth it when she found out she was chosen to go to Rio. Fun fact: she learned this via text message.
“I had just come from the gym and I checked my phone and one of the national team members from the Dominican Olympic team had texted me, ‘Congratulations for getting the wild card in going to the Olympics!’ I asked him what he was talking about and he said, ‘You got the wild card!’”
Not being able to believe it, she looked it up herself and began crying.
“My dad was in the car and I was crying and he thought something was wrong, he thought someone had passed away, and I was finally able to tell him. He was so ecstatic. It was actually raining that day. I couldn’t even make it to the house, I got out of the car and just fell and started crying even more. My dad had to pick me up, and I cried for about two hours. I was calling people crying. Everyone that I called asked me what was wrong and I’d say, ‘No! I made it to the Olympics!’”
Another fun fact: Aniya was the first woman to be selected to represent Haiti in the 2016 Rio Olympics. She’s still pinching herself.
“Whenever I think back to when I first found out, I’m so amazed because the Taekwondo Olympic Federation only gives out four wildcards in the world and two of those go to just women’s divisions. I was one of those two people. In the world.”
Though she goes to the Olympics as an athlete, she also goes as a fan of her peers, and looks forward to seeing some of the Taekwondo fighters she’s admired:
“Aaron Cook (-80 kg) from Great Britain and Steven Lopez (-80 kg) from the United States. They’re both tremendous fighters. This is Steven Lopez’ 5th Olympics and he’s a five-time World Champion, so I’m excited to see him fight. There’s also a man named Luisito Pie (-58 kg) from the Dominican Republic – I’ve actually trained with him before; he is great. I’m excited to see what he’ll do in the Olympics. As far as the women fighters go, there’s Katherine Rodriguez Peguero (+67 kg), also from the Dominican Republic and an amazing fighter. And there’s one called Wu Jingyu (-49 kg), and she is the best. She’s won gold and silver medals; this is her third Olympics. I’m excited to see her!”
Aniya’s first match is on August 19, when she faces off against the number one seed in her division, Haby Niare from France. She’ll have to get through two fights on the first day to make it to the semifinal and final fights, which will be held on August 20.
Looking back on her journey, she is thankful for this moment, and for being able to share it with her father. “The fact that he’s going to be by my side on the biggest stage of my career… I can’t describe it. A lot of athletes in the sport are unable to share this with their parents, and now I’m going to the Olympics and he’s going to be there. So the first person that I’ll get to hug if I win my first match will be my dad. And that makes me really happy.”
But win or lose, as her father reminds her, no matter what happens at the Olympics, she goes down in the books as an Olympian… just as she and her mother predicted when she was a little girl. Aniya wishes her mom could be present to share in this moment with her (she passed away 7 years ago).
Pretty sure she is.
