LSUS student wins two gold medals at Taekwondo world championships

SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) — LSUS business student and Shreveport native Layla Arendell brought home two gold medals and a bronze at the 2025 International Taekwon-do Federation Union World Championships earlier this month.

The 19-year-old third-degree black belt won gold in sparring and specialty board breaking, along with a bronze in patterns, competing in the women’s black belt division (ages 18-35) in the 50-55 kilogram class.

“Honestly, I didn’t do much training in sparring compared to patterns,” Arendell said in a news release. “I expected my opponents to be very aggressive in sparring, and they were. I worked on moving, getting out of the way, then countering.”

Arendell represented the United States among more than 26 competing countries, joining athletes from Benton, Shreveport, and Rockwall, Texas. She trains at Broadway Martial Arts in Haughton three days a week and travels to Rockwall on weekends to prepare for the world competition.

The former homeschooler plans to compete again at the 2026 World Championships in Italy. She also teaches taekwondo and hopes to become a business instructor after completing LSUS’s TeachLSUS program.