Two young people with ties to Meadow Lake have claimed their respective places amongst the best taekwondo practitioners in Canada. Sixteen-year-old Mac Harrison and his 14-year-old sister, Finn, recently competed at two national teakwood tournaments in Montréal where they each captured a bronze medal for their efforts. Finn Harrison won bronze in the Cadet Female Team Poomsae category at the Canadian Taekwondo Nationals, while her brother earned bronze in the Junior Male Team Poomsae category at the 2025 Taekwondo Canada Open. Both events took place Feb. 4-9.
“This was my first nationals,” Finn Harrison remarked. “I was proud to represent Saskatchewan. It was a fun but challenging experience. I had lots of fun, met lots of new people and made some new taekwondo friends as well.” Finn and Mac Harrison are the children of Jeremy and Alaina Harrison. “They have been super committed to taekwondo – both of them since they were about five years old,” Jeremy Harrison explained. “They earned their black belts over that period of time. They are both second-degree black belts now, and that’s a prerequisite – you need to be a black belt to compete at the national level.” Prior to advancing to the national competitions, the Harrison teens also competed at provincial championships late last year in Melville.
“At provincials, both won gold in their individual categories and in their pair categories, so they were able to go to the national championships representing Saskatchewan,” Jeremy Harrison continued. As noted, the national championships consisted of two separate events held concurrently. “There’s the Canadian National Championship as well as the Canadian Open Championship,” Jeremy Harrison reiterated.
The Open Championship also welcomed competitors from the U.S. and around the world. “They participated in both of those and to earn bronze is quite an accomplishment,” Jeremy Harrison added. “There are hundreds if not thousands of competitors at these things. Dad was very proud – I can tell you that – to have them represent Team Saskatchewan. They are the best taekwondo athletes in the province and among the best in all of Canada.” Jeremy Harrison went on to express just how dedicated his children are to their chosen sport. “They work really hard at it and they’re very talented,” he said. “Their mom and I are very proud of them. There’s a lot of pressure that comes with performing in the national spotlight, but they did very, very well.”
As for the initial spark that led to the Harrison teens developing such a strong passion for taekwondo opposed to any other sport, their father said it all began rather innocently. “They started out doing free classes at the YMCA and just fell in love with it,” he said. “They’ve just stuck with it ever since. They’ve also been very lucky to have had some very good coaching. They started out with Grand Master Sung Ju Kim who really is the icon of the Saskatchewan taekwondo world. He’s now retired, but he’s the only grand master of taekwondo, I believe, in the entire country. Since then, they’ve been very lucky to have Breanne Folk as their coach – she is ranked globally and is one of the best competitors in the entire world.” Looking ahead, Harrison said the children will carry on with the sport to however far it will take them. “They are committed to doing the very best they can,” he said. “It’s an Olympic sport and they’re nationally ranked. The Olympics may be an objective in the future. A lot can happen between now and then, but I believe that could be something they would very much aspire to. Again, Alaina and I are very proud of them, and it’s great to have kids who are really committed to an athletic pursuit. It’s healthy all the way around, and we’ve been really thrilled to support them through all of this.” Both of the recent national competitions fell under the auspices of Taekwondo Canada, while the provincial competition is organized by SaskTaekwondo.