Eisa Mozhdeh inside his martial arts club. Photo / David Haxton
Growing up in Iran, Eisa Mozhdeh dreamed of taking part in the Olympic Games.
As the years progressed, and his ability and dedication to taekwondo grew, that dream deepened and is now a distinct possibility.
But if he gets selected for the Olympics, it won’t be as part of the Iranian team, it will be for New Zealand, where he is now a citizen.
Eisa, 25, and his partner Stella Bismark, run the thriving Mozhdeh Martial Arts, in Paraparaumu, which has about 300 members across all ages.
When Eisa isn’t conducting classes, he’s doing lots of training for two upcoming Olympic selection events.
The first is the taekwondo nationals in August, and then Oceania championships early next year.
Eisa, a fifth-dan black belt, is training about twice a day.
“Each session is two hours long and I do it six days a week.”
So I went to Iran and got the MRI and surgery done in three days.
He’s also brought Omid Amidi, a gold medal-winning taekwondo world champion, over from Iran, on a visa, to coach him.
“When I was in the national junior team, in Iran, he was representing the team in seniors which was the next generation up.”
Eisa is also glad to be over an ACL injury that he sustained at the Oceania championships in Tahiti late year when he was fighting in the 80kg plus heavyweight division.
He’s undergone extensive rehabilitation and even went back to Iran because the health service was quicker.
“I wanted to have the surgery in New Zealand but the waitlist to do the MRI was about three weeks, and then about four months for the surgery.
“I felt that if I waited that long I would miss out on my chances for Olympic selection.
“So I went to Iran and got the MRI and surgery done in three days.”
He’s going back to his original weight category, under-68kg, for his Olympic hopes.
Eisa, who is steadily dropping weight which he put on during the post-surgery rest period, had a positive outlook.
“I’m very confident and grateful to have a coach as well as Stella’s support.”
Taekwondo has been part of Eisa’s life for as long as he can remember.
Growing up in Jouybar, which is in the northern part of Iran, his father Sheydol made sure all five children took up taekwondo.
“We all become black belts.”
Eisa excelled and would become a member of Iran’s junior national team.
By the age of 17 Eisa joined his two brothers in Melbourne and joined Fusion Martial Arts, as a trainer, where he met Stella too.
“At the start, I couldn’t speak a word of English but being part of the club really helped.”
The pair would eventually settle on the Kāpiti Coast and run their own club in two different venues before its current location, which used to be the Golden Coast Chartered Club, offered the space to accommodate the growing membership.
Eisa, a multiple-time Iran, Australia and New Zealand national champion, said a club member’s parent, who works in real estate, suggested the former chartered club as an ideal base.
“She said ‘If you’ve got some savings maybe come and look at this place – it could be the place you need’.”
It was perfect so they bought it, converted it to their needs, and never looked back.
Asked what the secret to the club’s success was, Eisa said, “We go the extra mile.”
As well as teaching taekwondo, the club fosters self-respect, respect for others, confidence, control and leadership.
And although he won’t say it, Eisa’s passion for taekwondo rubs off on members too.