Hannah Kiefer is a taekwondo athlete who was awarded a Tier 3 Scholarship within the Sport Australia Hall of Fame Scholarship and Mentoring Program.
Hannah was born in Sacramento, California in 2005 and relocated to Sydney Australia in 2010 at 5 years old with her family. Hannah was introduced to the sport of Taekwondo and joined Musa Taekwondo Academy in 2012 when she was 7 years old shortly after her sister was introduced. In 2019 Hannah had made the decision to quit her sport however at her last competition, Cadet World Championship selections, Hannah placed 1st. After winning a spot on the 2019 Cadet National Team to compete at the Cadet World Championships in Uzbekistan she decided she would see through another year of her sport.
Hannah saw a lot of success as a young athlete winning multiple national State and National titles. After not competing for 2-3 years due to the Covid-19 Pandemic Hannah still came through and had a very successful journey in 2022. In that year she made the Junior national team and competed at the Junior World Championships in Bulgaria. She also travelled to Korea for the Chuncheon Korean Open and won a spot on the national team to compete in Tahiti for the Presidents Cup, Tahiti Open and Oceania Championships. She medalled at all tournaments in Tahiti.
Following this she also won National Title at the end of the year. 2023 however was a slow year as Hannah decided to take more time to study in order to finish grade 12. During this time, her only major competition was the Australian Open and Presidents Cup in Brisbane. Unfortunately, Hannah did not medal at these competitions however she was happy with her performance and development and also had the privilege of fighting one of her taekwondo idols Korean athlete Lee-Dabin who won the silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
At the end of 2023 Hannah decided to make a huge life change and applied for the National Performance Centre in Melbourne. After being successful in her application Hannah and her family made the hard decision of relocating their life to Melbourne so that Hannah could continue her journey now as a full-time athlete. Since then, Hannah has finished a North American tour competing at the Canadian Open and USA Open in February.
Hannah is currently training full time at the VIS and National Performance Centre under her new coaches Seok Hun Lee and coach Ryan Carneli. Hannah will continue her academic career as well in 2025.
“It is such an honour to be one of the successful athletes to receive such scholarship. This scholarship is greatly contributing to the development and success of my Taekwondo sporting career. I am so grateful to have to support to move forward in my journey as I can seek access to so many resources and I believe it is bringing me one step closer to my goal of medalling at the LA 2028 Olympics.” – Hannah Kiefer on being selected as a 2025 Scholarship Holder
Honours & Achievements
- 2024 Oceania Championships – Juniors – 2nd Place
- 2022 Australian National Championships – Seniors -1st Place
- 2022 Senior World Championship Selections – 2nd Place
- 2022 Korean Open – Juniors – 1st Place
- 2022 Junior World Championships
Social Links | Instagram @hannah.kiefer_
