--- title: "Ismael Ox survived grenade blast in Niger, endured homelessness, pursued taekwondo; Aims for LA28 Paralympics with Team USA" sdDatePublished: "2026-09-07T13:50:00Z" source: "https://www.olympics.com/en/news/para-taekwondo-niger-born-ismael-ox-surviving-grenade-blast-overcoming-homelessness-chasing-la-28-paralympic" topics: - name: "sport" identifier: "medtop:15000000" - name: "martial arts" identifier: "medtop:20001157" - name: "human interest" identifier: "medtop:08000000" - name: "conflict, war and peace" identifier: "medtop:16000000" - name: "society" identifier: "medtop:14000000" locations: - "Diffa" - "Los Angeles" - "Brooklyn" - "Bodenseekreis" - "Chuncheon" - "Niger" - "United States" --- Ismael Ox survived grenade blast in Niger, endured homelessness, pursued taekwondo; Aims for LA28 Paralympics with Team USA Para taekwondo: Ismael Ox exclusive on surviving grenade blast in Niger, overcoming homelessness, and chasing LA28 Paralympic glory for Team USA Para taekwondo: Ismael Ox exclusive on surviving grenade blast in Niger, overcoming homelessness, and chasing LA28 Paralympic glory for Team USA The 22-year-old shared how taekwondo helped him overcome tragedy and homelessness in two countries, paving the way for an extraordinary path towards the U.S Paralympic team. Read his story of resilience and why he “never gave up” on his dreams. There are many missing pieces in Ismael Oumarou Ox’s life. The childhood he never had left him yearning for safety and ultimately led him to taekwondo. “Growing up in Africa for me was a really tough childhood. From a very young age I was always out there struggling to sell stuff to survive,” he tells Olympics.com. “I grew up mostly without my mum or dad, mainly with my grandma. As a young boy, I didn't think much of it or anything.” He then glances down at the scar on his partially mutilated hand. The Para taekwondo athlete barely remembers the day his village in rural Niger was attacked by an extremist terrorist group. A grenade was thrown into a pack of children. Ox, who was just 11 years old at the time, picked it up to hurl it away. The grenade detonated, and his right hand bore the brunt of the explosion, leaving him permanently disabled. “It’s funny that after I lost my hand, I wanted to do more taekwondo. People would tease me, ‘Oh, you want to fight? You are disabled. You cannot kick nobody with one hand’. I didn’t even know how to do taekwondo well at that time, but I just wanted to keep fighting.” Then, as a teenager, Ox nearly lost himself on the streets of New York, facing homelessness and hunger. Yet again, taekwondo gave him stability, purpose, and a path forward , planting more seeds of the resilience that he hopes can carry him to the Paralympic stage at LA 2028. “It was 2016, that's when the Olympics became clearer to me,” he recalls, speaking with us from Friedrichshafen, Germany, where he was based for training throughout August. “There is this guy from Niger who won silver in taekwondo at the Olympics [in Rio], and that's the year that I knew about the Olympics. That’s when I also said to myself, ‘The next champion in taekwondo from Niger will be me’.” Para taekwondo athlete Ismael Ox who competes in the K44 class. A toddler escaping violence and his struggle to survive He is only 22, but Ismael Ox’s story sounds like a script right from a Hollywood thriller. Yet despite everything he has endured for most of his life, he would not change a thing. Growing up in the Sahel region of West Africa, the native of the capital Niamey spent most of his childhood on the move. Driven from his home to escape violence and poverty. One of 18 siblings, he would find refuge in the rural Diffa region, where his grandmother lived. “I thought it was normal not to live with your mum or dad. Most of my life I have lived with grandma, from the time I think I was four years old to about seven,” he shared of his earlier years. “I didn’t like living at home because it was not a safe environment for me. My dad was a violent man. He would always hit me, hit my mum … I would run away. The bad thing is that I grew up thinking it's normal to hit people. "Some days I would just go and stay more at the Quran school, but I was hungry, as there's no food. To survive, I used to sell water or clean people’s bathrooms. Some days I would be lucky to pick some coins as people entered the mosque, where I would mostly sleep. Looking back now, it was a tough childhood, with nobody to guide me, but through it all I always dreamt of changing my life, somehow.” The dusty, sun-baked earth of his home country forged his grit and resilience. Growing up amid poverty, he learned early that nothing came easy, and he had to battle for everything. As a boy, Ox would often be drawn into fights until a local taekwondo instructor spotted him, invited him to practice at his dojo, and channel his energy differently. “I knew taekwondo when I was young. The guy who spotted me said he could see the hunger in me, and he is the one who pushed me to do it. I did for a few months before I got into trouble, and I was kicked out,” he told us. How taekwondo changed disabled refugee Parfait Hakizimana's life Hakizimana lost most of his left arm when he was shot in an attack in his homeland Burundi which killed his mother. Years later, after taking up taekwondo, he fled to Rwanda and is now representing the Refugee Paralympic Team at Tokyo 2020. A grenade attack that sparked a love for taekwondo: "It made me want to be great" Change did come, but in a way he never expected. One day, in his sleepy village, southeast of Niger, a notorious terrorist group targeted his region. A grenade exploded, severely wounding him. “I am lucky to have survived because, had it exploded where it was thrown, it would have torn through my body and harmed more people. I was taken to hospital, and I remember seeing my grandma crying, I didn’t understand why. Much later, is when I understood it’s because I had lost part of my arm.” The young Nigerien turned back to taekwondo, dedicating himself to the sport "like never before”. Ismael Ox at a training session in the U.S. Winning the 2018 African title strengthened his belief in what he could achieve in the martial art. It showed him what was possible, even when those around him doubted his potential. “Switching to para was not easy, but I was very determined. Para taekwondo is a little harder because we have one specific spot to score on. "Going back to training as a para, they would say, ‘Look at Ismael, his family is like this, and now with his one hand, he wants to do taekwondo. You cannot kick anybody with one hand!',” remembered the four-time Niger champion. “In my head, all these voices were motivation … They pushed me more. I became more creative. I started training more consistently and in competitions, I would fight even harder. Not only that, but I decided, 'I want to be great' – I wished to be somebody for my country. But this dream, I knew, would not be realised in Niger.” Surviving homelessness to earning his spot at the Team USA dojo In 2018, Ox went to the U.S. for a tournament, and wanted to stay, searching for a better life. But that first meant homelessness and hunger. “I was a bit naive; I didn’t know you needed any papers or even money to survive in America. I didn’t speak a word of English. I was 17, and I didn't realise I needed a family, a home. It meant doing some hard casual jobs and sleeping mostly on the streets and in train stations. I would beg, do odd jobs for $10 a day. It was very hard. "Not many people wanted to give me a job, with my one hand. When the conditions improved, I moved from one foster care to the next, but I really didn't care,” said Ox. Every setback he faced only made him more determined. Ox found a breakthrough within New York’s taekwondo community by mainly leveraging his past competitive record. His surname, derived from a nickname that was born in the farms of Niger, where he worked alongside the powerful animal, is a fitting symbol of the strength and resilience that continue to define his fights . Now based in Brooklyn, where he connected with his current trainer, Ali Badara , the taekwondo athlete entered and dominated local competitions, including the U.S. Open, which he won in the -75kg class. Becoming a U.S. citizen in 2025 gave him a new stage . The reigning U.S. national champion is now ranked among the top 25 in the world, and has been invited to train with Team USA as he harbours dreams of competing for the country he now calls home at the LA 28 Paralympics. As he looks to compete at the World Championships in Chuncheon, South Korea, from 16-20 September, Ox, who has just won the 2026 Swiss Open , remains dependent on public support and fundraising to cover the costs of his training and travel to competitions. But like the Ox he is, he charges on. “I am not doing this just for me. Most of my life I have been competing against the odds,” he said. “I want my journey to motivate somebody else. I grew up with nothing, in an unstable home, I know what it means to sleep hungry, to be homeless. I know suffering, but I am still here. I know many kids out there are suffering right now. I know it’s hard, but listen: if I made it, you will make it. Never give up, put in the work and just stay disciplined.” Sport Explainer - Para Taekwondo Want to find out more about Para Taekwondo? Discover the sport's presentation and rules. 1min30 to understand it all!