Winnipeg martial arts group narrowly avoids terrorist attack

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This article was published 22/03/2016 (3822 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After picking up several medals in a martial arts competition in Belgium, a high-performance team from Winnipeg was running 10 minutes late Tuesday morning on the way to the Brussels airport.

They were approaching the terminal when terrorists attacked.

“They heard two explosions and saw emergency vehicles flying by,” TRP Academy senior instructor Tyler Rempel said in Winnipeg.

The 12 taekwondo competitors from Winnipeg range in age from 12 to their early 20s, he said. Their families at home in Winnipeg have all been notified that they’re safe and sound, said Rempel. They’re with their head coach, master instructor Jae Park, in Paris waiting for a flight to Winnipeg Wednesday.

“We’re doing well — we’re too tired to worry,” Park said Tuesday in Paris.

The team drove to the City of Light after the Brussels airport was shut down. They didn’t want to wait there for it to reopen, he said. “A terrorist attacked and we’re not sticking around.”

They found hotel rooms Tuesday night and were planning to take advantage of the unexpected Paris excursion and see the Eiffel tower lit with the colours of the Belgian flag before flying back to Winnipeg Wednesday. It would be a meaningful and moving end to a trip tainted with terror and tragedy.

The martial arts academy had rented three vehicles for the competition in Lommel, Belgium, that wrapped up on the weekend, said Park. They were on their way to the airport in Brussels Tuesday morning. His wife was in the lead vehicle and arrived at the departures area first. She called him and said “I don’t think you’re going to be able to make,” said Park. “She said ‘There’s something going on here.'” They saw a billow of smoke from the building then emergency vehicles rushing by with police setting up barricades.

It was a scene of panic, said Park. “People were running outside — some with their luggage. Some of the people were injured,” he said. “It was chaos — something out of a movie.” Only it was reality. They were diverted from the terminal and the three vehicles managed to meet up later. Park said he hugged and kissed his wife. “I was elated.”

They were aware of the Paris terrorists’ link to Brussels but didn’t expect they’d strike there.

“It’s Belgium, right? You hear about terrorist attacks.” That didn’t stop the team from sightseeing in Brussels on Monday. When terror struck on a subway line there Tuesday, it shook the members of the taekwondo team, said Park. Some of them said, “We were there — that could’ve been us.”

They dodged that attack and again at the airport. Park said if they’d arrived at the airport on time — 10 minutes earlier — there’s a good chance members of the team would’ve been in the departure area where the deadly explosions occurred. The life-saving delay is thanks to one of the dads on the trip who was late coming down from his hotel room Tuesday morning, said Park.

“Right now I feel blessed.” It’s a blessing stunned with sorrow. “You think of the people — many people have died.”

Park said he understands Winnipeg school trips to the region being cancelled. “It changes the way you think about travelling and life.”

If the attacks in Belgium had occurred before the competition, Park said he would’ve cancelled the trip.

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“Terrorists are trying to put fear into everyone,” Park said Tuesday night from Paris.

“Now we’re sitting here in Paris, which I don’t think is safe.” The martial arts team wasn’t going to hide in their hotel room, though. “We’re going to see the Eiffel tower.”

They successfully competed in the Dutch and Belgian Opens for martial arts and are bringing home a gold medal, three silvers and two bronze medals to show for it, along with an amazing story of timing and luck.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter

Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol.

Every piece of reporting Carol produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.