Olympic Taekwondo champion becomes Baku 2015 ambassador

/By AzerNews/

By Nigar Orujova

GB Taekwondo athlete Jade Jones will be an international Athlete Ambassador for this summer’s inaugural event Baku 2015 European Games.

Baku 2015 international Athlete Ambassadors will represent their sports and feature in extensive marketing campaigns around the continent and on social media to promote the first European Games.

Jones became Great Britain’s first-ever Taekwondo gold medallist at London 2012, with victory in the 57kg weight division.

She also won silver at the 2011 World Taekwondo Championships in Gyeongju, South Korea, and picked up another silver medal at the 2014 European Taekwondo Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan, last May.

Jones joins French rhythmic gymnast Kseniya Moustafaeva, Denmark’s canoe sprinter Rene Holten Poulsen and Serbia’s Basketball 3x3 team of Dusan Domovic Bulut, Marko Savic, Marko Zdero and Dejan Majstorovic as Baku 2015 international Athlete Ambassadors, with more to be announced in the near future.

“To be able to name a reigning Olympic champion as a Baku 2015 ambassador is a fantastic achievement for the first European Games and a testament to the calibre of athletes that the event will attract,” said Simon Clegg, Chief Operating Officer of Baku 2015.

“I am sure Jade will very much enjoy promoting the Games in Great Britain through her role as an international Athlete Ambassador, and we hope to see her give a memorable performance in Baku this summer,” he added.

Jones, 21, said: “I am very proud to have been named as a Baku 2015 Athlete Ambassador, and it will be an honour to help promote the Games. It is important for European athletes to have our own multi-sport event, and my aim is to become the first European Games Taekwondo champion.”

“Jade’s participation as a Baku 2015 international Athlete Ambassador reflects British athletes’ enthusiasm for the European Games,” Mark England, the British Olympic Association’s Chef de Mission for Baku 2015, said. “Britain has a strong sporting tradition, and the Athlete Ambassador programme will help to generate interest and excitement in the country ahead of Baku 2015.”

The biggest sporting event in Azerbaijan's history, the Baku 2015 European Games will attract more than 6,000 athletes to represent 49 countries in 20 sports.

There will be a total of 20 sports at Baku 2015: 16 Olympic sports and four non-Olympic sports. Eleven of the sports will offer qualification opportunities for the Rio Summer Olympics in 2016.