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Marshall helps U.S. team have more than a fighting chance Just like
any other good editorial writer, Julie Hoffman Marshall ('95 MA)
knows what it's like to battle pronouns and misplaced modifiers
to provide persuasive opinions.
But if words ever fail her, she can also put you on your back
before you can say "dear editor." |
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"People often tell me it's a good skill for an editorial writer
to have," she said. "I'm fairly small, and people are often surprised
at my martial arts background.
"I think anytime you can get people to think in unconventional terms, that is a good thing." The U.S. women competitors got themselves to think unconventionally in Argentina, where they had an impressive showing against opponents from 70 other nations, including traditionally strong teams from the host country, Poland, Canada and Korea, where the martial art was developed. "Taekwon-do competition consists of sparring (contact fighting), patterns (choreographed sets of moves) and breaking wooden boards," Marshall said. The U.S. women took the bronze medal in power breaking and made it to the semifinals in sparring. "I was the only U.S. individual woman microweight fighter (115 pounds and below) representing the U.S, having won the spot at nationals this past spring in Texas," she said. "I did better than I expected. I finished in the top six out of 23 countries in my fighting division." While she is proud of her accomplishments, which were written up in the Denver Rocky Mountain News and Westword, Marshall noted that whoever said getting there is half the fun probably wasn't a martial artist. "Looking back, it was really hard to put in a long day at the newspaper, run to taekwon-do class, train after class for an hour or more, and get home close to midnight three times a week. Then there's the outside training -- weight lifting, running track, spinning and, ugh, dieting. "But it was well worth it, though. I grew as a martial artist. I feel more confident, having competed at a world-class level, and that carries over into my professional life. As an editorial writer for the Daily Camera, I like to remind myself of one simple truth: What you get out of an experience depends on what you put into it. That is true if you are newsgathering or training for a taekwon-do tournament." Taking at least some of the bite out of her training regimen was her husband, Tim, whom she met at the CU taekwon-do club and is also an accomplished world-class competitor. We were the only married couple ever to be members of the U.S. team," Marshall said. She welcomes former classmates to exchange opinions with her at: MarshallJ@boulderpublishing.com |
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