By Kim Dunbar

Like most kids, Jayson Grant grew up watching martial arts flicks and dreaming of someday becoming a Ninja Turtle. While the 20-year-old Worcester native isn’t exactly fighting crime and living in a sewer, he is representing the United States in taekwondo competitions across the country ~ and now the world.

Grant, a former national champion and a third degree Black Belt, recently returned from Belgrade, Serbia, where he competed as a member of the US National Team in the World University Games (the team won one gold) and from Inchon, Korea, where he was one of 16 men representing the USA at the 2009 Korea Open (Editor’s note: this issue had gone to press before he competed in the Open in late August).

Grant, a sophomore at Quinsigamond Community College, has represented the United Sates on two previous occasions, but is seizing these summer opportunities to increase his experience. “I need to get more international exposure to help me develop my skills as a taekwondo athlete,” said Grant.

Grant has been practicing taekwondo since he was seven years old, when his godfather introduced his family to the sport. “He had been doing taekwondo and told my parents about it,” said Grant. “I tried it the first day and liked it. I was hooked from there,” he added.

However, it wasn’t until Grant was 14 when he realized that he had a future in the sport.  “In 2003, when I was representing the US for the first time, I realized that there was a whole other competition level to taekwondo, not just the local level I was used to,” he said.

Grant started attending seminars and began training in both Boston and Cambridge, and after a year he was convinced he could hang with the best.  “I realized I was young and that I could train with them, that I could be on that level,” Grant said.

From age 13 to 15, Jayson worked hard, and by 16 things started to go well.  “Since then, I have been on a streak,” he said.  Grant’s streak includes the 2008 NCTA Outstanding Freshman Male Athlete of the Year award, a collection of gold, silver and bronze hardware from various competitions, a spot on the 2008 Pan Am Championship team, and a fourth place finish in the US Olympic Trials.

But Grant has worked hard for his success. “I don’t believe in luck,” he said. “I believe in being prepared and I feel like I have prepared myself.”  Aside from his taekwondo training, Grant likes to switch up his cross-training workouts during the week to prevent boredom.  “You need to be creative when working out,” he said, adding that a repetitive program might promote slacking.  To break up the monotony, Grant plays a lot of basketball as well as some soccer, and takes the occasional cardio kickboxing class; he also spent the summer hitting the track with one of his Korean Open teammates.

Grant, who describes himself as hardworking, goofy and talkative, appears to be positioning himself not only as a major threat in taekwondo competition, but on a path that will surely allow him to achieve his dreams.  “My main goal is to win all of my matches,” he said, which he hopes includes a victory in the 2011 World Championships, all the major international Opens and gold at the next World University Games.  But Grant also has a grounded plan for the future ~ when his fighting days are done, he would someday like to work as a taekwondo scout, but is also studying criminal justice at QCC and aims to serve as a state trooper. “I’m just going to see where it takes me,” he said.

Maybe becoming a Ninja Turtle isn’t so farfetched.