Lutalo Muhammad

Lutalo was born and raised a few miles from the site of the Olympic Stadium in Stratford. He began practicing taekwondo at the age of three with his father Wayne Muhammad, who has more than four decades of experience in martial arts.

“We were watching taekwondo at the Sydney Olympics when my dad asked me if I would like to compete. I said ‘yes’ and have been competing ever since.”

In the summer of 2011, he joined the GB Academy and has gone on to become the most successful male in British taekwondo history. He represented Great Britain at the 2012 Olympics, winning a bronze medal, and the 2016 Olympics, winning a silver medal.

Unfortunately, after suffering a series of injuries between Rio and Tokyo, a third successive Olympic Games was off the cards. It was a huge blow, but Lutalo decided to dust himself off and take up the BBC’s offer to be a pundit during the Games. It was a step into the unknown but one that paid off given how he performed. He was a revelation, seen most clearly in the online reaction to his punditry. Twitter, it is fair to say, blew up. His fantastic coverage lead to him receiving Bronze in The Ones To Watch category at the 2021 SJA British Sports Journalism Awards.