Emory College senior David Lee didn’t join fellow Team USA athletes in taking in the sights of Hong Kong after he won a gold medal in the 2024 World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships.
Instead, he spent the better part of the next day flying back to Atlanta — just in time to deliver a final presentation in his economics course. One sleep later, he was in Washington, D.C., competing in a tournament with the nationally-ranked Emory Mock Trial team.
“Honestly, I really am passionate about everything that I do, so it doesn’t feel like a lot,” says Lee, a political science major and economics minor from Gwinnett County.
“It’s a basic tenant of taekwondo, that if you love something, you should persevere and give 100% so that you will do it well,” Lee adds.
The mental discipline and self-confidence emphasized by the most systematic of martial arts has infused every part of Lee’s life. In addition to taking the gold in the male under-30 team at World Taekwondo last year, the former U.S. Senate intern also works as a legal intern with Atlanta’s Policing Alternatives and Diversion Initiative (PAD) and is completing an honors thesis that offers a political and economic analysis of PAD on individual recidivism.
“As I’ve told him, David’s name is spoken a lot in my household because I tell my wife all of the amazing things he is doing,” says Michael Leo Owens, the professor of political science serving as Lee’s honors thesis adviser.
“David tries to be as careful and rigorous as he can be. He does not tolerate setbacks,” Owens adds. “He is just a glorious student and person.”
A decade of practice
Lee has studied taekwondo since he was six years old, both in respect to his Korean heritage and with a goal to become physically stronger.
A master at his dojang spotted his promise with poomsae — a foundational part of the sport that focuses on eight “forms” of dynamic movement, breath control and balance — and encouraged Lee to enter his first competition as a seventh grader.
Lee has studied taekwondo since the age of six, working his way up to being recognized on the national stage.
“Politely put, it was not a display of mastery at all,” Lee says of his inaugural effort at the 2015 U.S. Open to perform the sequence of punches and kicks in sync with two other practitioners.
Lee was undeterred. He put the sport’s tenants of perseverance, indomitable spirit, self-control, courtesy and integrity into practice. He committed to regular training, then stayed after to clean the mats and to teach younger students.
The self-discipline improved his focus in high school, where he excelled in class and spent two summers working in constituent services in his U.S. Congresswoman’s district office. It also helped him develop into a fourth-degree black belt and earned him a spot on Team USA in 2019, when he was still in high school.
He entered Emory two years later, committed to competing while pursuing pre-law coursework.
“It took well over a decade to master the moves to compete on the world stage and to set myself out on this road,” Lee says. “I feel very fortunate to be at Emory, where I can study and have the proximity to train at my dojang.”
Transferring taekwondo to life at Emory
Access to a training hall was crucial. Since Emory doesn’t have a taekwondo club, Lee trained at his home dojang or a teammate’s dojang in New Jersey every weekend he didn’t have Mock Trial.
He joined Emory Club Gymnastics in the club’s Decatur gym for six hours a week, a time-saver that let him volunteer with Emory SHINE and intern with U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff in addition to his classes.
Lee enjoyed the theoretical focus of his political science major and the empirical and quantitative aspects of his economics minor. Then, after participating in a summer economics program at the University of Chicago, he realized how to combine them.
He quickly dove into research, joining the Politics of Policing Lab that Owens co-leads to collect data on fatal police shootings. The work led to his interest in alternative policing programs.
Through all his involvement and coursework, Lee mentioned taekwondo in passing but never mentioned that he was competing on a global level, Owens says.
“As I’ve learned more about poomsae — and how it is ritualistic and requires deep concentration and high regard for the two other people in sync with you — I realize I’ve seen David demonstrate that drive and rigor in everything he does,” Owens says.
Lee views taekwondo more as a life philosophy than just an activity. He plans to continue with it throughout his life, though he wouldn’t pass up a chance to vie as an Olympian if the poomsae style joins sparring taekwondo in the coming years.
In the meantime, he still has law school in his sights. He is taking a rare break from training this spring, to focus on captaining an Emory Mock Trial team and enjoying his last few months at Emory.
“When I look at my Emory career, I see professors who genuinely care about students and upperclassmen who welcome and support freshmen,” Lee says. “Taekwondo really taught me how to stay disciplined in whatever I do and appreciate what is in front of me, and I am really grateful to see the genuine support here.”
David Lee (left) competes in the 2024 World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships. Video by PerfectImperfection.