History

Leones has its origins in a Salvadoran private academy of taekwondo that was born in 2001 in San Salvador, led by a 15-year-old who undertook the first group as part of the social service.

Over time, the organization was growing in number, quality and recognition until reaching the point of having 120 students in the group that originally was born in the educational institution where their leader graduated academically prior to college. The academy also became part of the group of private schools affiliated to the Salvadoran Federation of Taekwondo.

In 2008, the group was so numerous that its leader asked for support through a program of social service similar to the one he was part and gave rise to the taekwondo group in the institution, with the aim of having more instructors supporting Subgroups. This initiative wasn’t approved by the institution.

Due to the lack of support for the initiatives, his leader began to think about leaving the sport of taekwondo as a competitor and instructor, so then he could dedicate his full-time to get his professional degree in business administration instead, and find a job like his other friends.

However, it was in those days that a group of promoters of a business competition visited the classroom where that day he was having classes at the University called Central American University «José Simeón Cañas» (UCA), offering the opportunity to win cash prizes with The 1st EMPRENDEUCA, a business competition promoted by the BANCAJA Foundation of Spain at that time, which would distribute money as seed capital.

The Leones director chooses to enter the contest and submit to all phases and processes of the same, resulting in the end as the winner of the first prize. This money was used to carry out the process of independence of Leones, separating at that moment from the educational institution that gave birth to it to become an independent entity and free action in the field of national federated sports.

That was how the first local of Leones was obtained, where it could begin to function independently. However, due to security problems, Leones academy was forced to close.

In 2012, the Leone’s School moved to the Sagrada Familia School where they worked for a year. The academy has been growing since then with ups and downs, but always staying firm in its purposes and vision of its main leader.

At the moment Leones has a wide local and is recognized as one of the main academies of taekwondo in the Central American region, recognized at international level, having links in different parts of the world through its director,  who as competitor has been able to take the Salvadoran name and Leones name along to the places he has competed, trained or visited for other reasons.

Leones now has Central American champions, Central American and Caribbean medalists, Pan American medalists, and participants of world championships and Olympic cycle events. The pursuit of the dream of being in Olympic games is still in search. This in the competitive, however, in the social, is an institution daily worried by the needs in the integral education of its students, motivating and promoting the integral education through the values that teach taekwondo, leaving to the Salvadoran society an important mark in the social and cultural contribution through each one of its members.

However, its director, over time was detecting the inability to support people without the resource to be able to pay the service to be part of the Leones movement, and as such opted for a scholarship program supporting some students. Nevertheless, the support was short in order to be able to develop them or to be able to provide them with more resources. This is where the idea of creating a foundation that supports the existing talent was born, and continue with the contribution of values to children and young people in different parts of the country especially to those that are more likely to be vulnerable to entering gangs and other social ills currently existing in El Salvador.

This is how the challenge arises for its director to be able to set up a Foundation and, from then on, to be able to work with what has, hitherto, been developed, but with support that can be added to increase the Leones movement and be able to pass on Positive way, better and more people with it. This is how the Taekwondo Leones Foundation officially enters operations in June 2016, with an unprecedented projection in the national Taekwondo environment, hoping to favor the existing talent in our sport at national level and to reach people of different segments in the population, especially those who do not have resources and access to this type of extracurricular training activity.