Jordan Boudreau hadn't competed internationally in about 12 years. But, as part of Team Canada for the International Taekwon-Do Federation Pan American Championships, he proved he's still a formidable force.
Boudreau, the 39-year-old head instructor at Prince George's Family Taekwon-Do, fought to a pair of silver medals at the Pan Ams, held last weekend in Buenos Aires, Argentina. All his bouts took place on Sunday. First, he punched and kicked his way to silver in individual heavyweight sparring. Later in the day, he was part of a Canadian contingent that was handed the same colour medal in team sparring.
"It was totally, totally exciting," said Boudreau, who last fought on behalf of Canada at the 2004 ITF world championships in Korea. "I've always wanted to be known as someone that can compete at an international level. Winning provincials, westerns, nationals, those are huge honours but anytime you get that opportunity to compete internationally and rise to that level, it's amazing. I just love it."
Following those 2004 worlds, Boudreau decided to turn his attention to coaching. After a couple years, however, he realized he still wanted to fight. Tournament titles quickly piled up and, by 2015, he was a Canadian champion again. He attended last year's world tournament in Italy but didn't get the chance to compete because he had to return home to attend to a family emergency.
Boudreau's invitation to join Team Canada for the Pan Ams came about a week before the event. He went to Buenos Aires just wanting to perform at his best. As it turned out, his best was good enough for the medal podium.
In individual heavyweight sparring, the six-foot-two, 205-pound Boudreau won his first three bouts and that landed him in the gold-medal match against an opponent from Chile. In a two-round fight, with each round lasting three minutes, Boudreau and the Chilean were tied at the end of the first.
"He was a little bit younger than me but, size-wise, we matched up quite well," Boudreau said. "Style-wise, we both had a very aggressive, forward-fighting style.
"There were a lot of exchanges during the entire match. There wasn't a lot of lag time in between the exchanges."
Ultimately, the contest came down to one well-placed strike by the Chilean with about 25 seconds left in the second round. He caught Boudreau with a clean turning kick.
"Every single judge saw it, guaranteed," Boudreau said. "So I didn't have much time to work with and basically my opponent went on sort of a defensive game and was able to run out the clock. It was good strategy on his part."
In the end, three of the four judges scored the match in the Chilean's favour. But, for Boudreau, the experience of fighting for a championship in front of about 12,000 passionate fans was a thrilling reward for his work.
"I think there were around 1,700 black belts competing at this event so the odds of actually getting a medal were slim to begin with," said Boudreau, who holds a fifth-degree black belt. "So when we made it to the medal rounds we were already super-excited. Then to win that semifinal match and make it into the finals... it instantly changes your whole mindset. You go, 'Wow, I'm in the finals and I'm going to be competing for this gold medal.' The injuries are kind of instantly gone and you get amped up to get in there. They announce you as the final match and everyone's cheering. You're waiting for that referee to lift his hand up so you can begin your match. It was just an amazing feeling heading into that final."
None of Boudreau's first three matches was easy but he emerged victorious against a gigantic Argentinian, a Paraguayan and, in the semifinal, an Argentinian with whom he had exchanged friendly words earlier in the day.
"I was like, 'Oh, it's my friend that I met this morning. This should be an alright match - we had a little pal-around session this morning and now we're going to compete against each other, it should be great,'" Boudreau said. "Before the match started, he gives me this thumbs-up, like 'So good to see you here in this match.' And as soon as that referee lifted his arm to begin, it was like his whole demeanour changed. It just switched and now he was into full competition mode. This guy came charging at me and I was completely overwhelmed right off the bat and he scored probably within the first five seconds on me. I don't know if I fell for his game plan to kind of be the nice guy and then, 'Bam!' He lands a clean technique right off the bat."
Boudreau recovered quickly, and, as the match went on, used his superior fitness level to full advantage. At the end of the bout, the judges awarded him a unanimous victory.
After he was presented with his individual silver, Boudreau was back on the mats later in the day for the team event. Canada was one of four teams in the competition and was supposed to fight Jamaica in the semifinal round. Jamaica, however, had to bow out because of injuries and that put Canada into the final against Argentina, which had beaten Chile in the other semi.
When Canada and Argentina squared off, the host country was clearly at a higher level and won all five matches.
"Every single member of that Argentinian team is currently competing at the world championship level," Boudreau said. "They were a stacked team and they were ready to go. I don't even think that some of them fought in individual, they were just preparing for the team event. Not to say that we didn't do well. For a team that was put together two weeks prior to heading down there, to compete against the Argentinian national team that's been together for a few years now, we held our own."
Boudreau, who does his strength and conditioning training at Prince George's Crossfit Darkstar, will now go back to his regular schedule of practicing and teaching at Family Taekwon-Do. His next big tournament will be the Canadian nationals in the fall, which he hopes will lead him to the 2017 world championships in Ireland.
