Rio 2016: Fighters Carmen and Caroline Marton join Safwan Khalil and Hayder Shkara in taekwondo team

FOUR team members, one heading to their third Olympics, another their second and two on debut. Two sisters, one couple and overall four good friends.

Caroline Marton, Carmen Marton and Safwan Khalil taekwondo athletes who have beens elected for the Australian Olympic Team for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games . Picture Craig Greenhill

FOUR team members, one heading to their third Olympics, another their second and two on debut. Two sisters, one couple and overall four good friends.

It makes for a close-knit Australian taekwondo team going to Rio 2016.

Safwan Khalil and Carmen Marton are partners. Carmen’s sister Caroline has qualified for her first Olympics at age 31 and Khalil’s close friend Hayder Shkara rounds out the team.

Sisters Caroline and Carmen Marton, and Safwan Khalil have been selected for the Australian Olympic taekwondo team for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Pic: Craig Greenhill

On standby for Shkara for the Games is Jack Marton, the youngest sibling in the family and Khalil’s brother, Ali, is the national coach.

In a sport where maintaining focus and mental control is paramount to winning, having this kind of support network will only be an advantage.

“It’s been a great benefit that our lifestyles can complement each other,” said Carmen about her and her partner Khalil. “When tournaments go well or they don’t go well, we’re there to support each other, do extra training sessions, massage each other if there’s no massage therapist travelling with us.

“It’s been a positive in my career and given me a lot of strength and now that we have a full team we’re going to feed off each other and that energy.

“Four years ago it was bittersweet. I felt like I couldn’t completely enjoy it because my sister didn’t make the team ... It’s almost like the qualifications were the requirement and now this is the big one.”

That bittersweet moment goes back to qualifying for London 2012, when Caroline was about 15 seconds from earning a place on the Australian team, only to be disqualified.

Carmen Marton and Safwan Khalil won gold at the Pacific Games, as did other team members Caroline Marton and Hayder Shkara.

It was a tough moment for the family, where Carmen and Khalil had booked their spot but were faced with someone so close to them missing out in such a way.

“Four years ago we were actually holding each other in the bathroom, sobbing, crying on each other that one of us had made it and one of us didn’t, especially on something so contentious,” said Carmen.

“To see her up on the podium when she qualified, I just started crying again, but it was happy tears. It was a beautiful moment. I’m incredibly proud of her. I don’t know if I would have been able to be that strong.”

But it was the support and encouragement of Carmen that pushed Caroline back into the sport after she decided to retire when she was 24.

Appearing to be out of favour with selectors for national teams back then, Caroline took time away from taekwondo, but the hunger and drive — a trait that seems to run in the family — was too much.

“It was politics and I needed a change of lifestyle,” Caroline said about the reason for her retirement.

Carmen Marton lost her bronze medal match loss to Germany's Helena Fromm at the London Games 2012.

“I went back to uni, moved out of home and did some things that non-athletes do and had a really good time but then my sister was like, it’s time to come back, so I did.

“My first competition back I tore my ACL and it was only after I had that injury and it was taken away from me that I said, ‘no this is an important part of my life, I want to see how far I can go.’”

All four members are going for gold at Rio because setting their eye on the top prize will help keep that focus, which could end up being the difference between winning and losing.

“I know athletes don’t want to get too ahead of themselves or build up expectation but it does need to be the focus and that’s what I learnt in London because I lost focus because I was content with any medal,” explained Carmen, who lost her bronze medal match at the London Games.

“When I set my eyes on the gold at the world championships I was able to maintain that focus that whole day. That’s what I aim to do in Rio — my focus is gold, so I can keep in that good state; I can’t get too complacent, I can’t relax, I can’t be content. I need to be 100 per cent switched on.”

Originally published as Rio 2016: Fighters Carmen and Caroline Marton join Safwan Khalil and Hayder Shkara in taekwondo team