Hazel Della plans for the Olympics. Sounds of fighting echo through a stadium. In the center of the ring stands a girl delivering the final blow to her opponent, knocking them out. The crowd cheers as she rises victorious, announced to be the winner of the match. That girl is Hazel Anabelle Generoso Della, the top taekwondo fighter on the East Coast, who is currently aiming to join the Olympics.
Della first got into taekwondo when she was eight due to the action shows she watched with her brother such as “Ninjago” or “Kickin’ It.” “We would play out our own scenarios in the living room until it got to the point where we would just tell our dad we wanted to try martial arts for real,” Della said.
After one or two years, Della was asked to join the competitive sparring team by the grandmaster of her taekwondo school. “It was a surprise to me. I knew the team existed, along with its prestigious aura stemming from how selective it was,” Della said.
Della plans to join the United States Olympic team in the future, building up her score to be invited. “Usually, athletes have to earn a certain number of points or be placed within the top 32 athletes in the world to be invited to compete at the Olympics. In order to be on the United States Olympic team, you have to have those points,” Della said.
Della has participated in a number of tournaments around the world in order to build up her points to further her chance of joining the US Olympics team. “I was able to travel to Heredia, Costa Rica for Junior PanAms (a continental tournament), Sofia, Bulgaria in August for junior worlds, and Guadalajara, Mexico in November for senior worlds to compete against other countries,” Della said.
Currently, Della holds the number one spot on the East Coast for taekwondo, as well as competing with another for the top spot in the country. “As of now, I am the dominant player for all of the East Coast. I am currently competing against one other person for the top spot in the country,” Della said.
Della’s friends have supported her as well, proud of how she acts about it. “She is passionate about her sport and still manages to stay humble and sportsmanlike,” senior Cally Mosman said.
Senior Anna Cheung also expressed her pride for her friend and how far she’s come. “I feel really proud of her and how far she has come in her taekwondo career. I often tell her that I can’t wait to see her in the Olympics,” Cheung said.
Della thanks her parents as well as her friends and teammates for her success in the sport. “My parents are definitely a huge contributor towards my success. The friends I made from being teammates helped me keep my sanity during all the training, and would make me feel better from all the negative emotions that came with tying yourself to a sport,” Della said.
