Taking the Taekwondo world by storm, Thomas Glanz just won the national championship — his little brother Ben is not far behind.
Last weekend at the National Taekwondo Championship in Calgary, 14-year-old Thomas placed first for the 18-and-under blue belt category. His brother Ben came in third.
The two boys from Houston have only been doing Taekwondo for a year but have five years experience in karate.
“We first got them into karate because Thomas was being bullied at school, so we thought it would be a way for him to deal and it developed from there,” said their mother, Rebecca Glanz.
Both boys were national champions in karate, Thomas for brown belt at age 12 and his brother Ben for purple at age 10.
The boys have gotten to travel all around the world and across the country to compete, but it does not come cheap.
Their mom Rebecca said the boys fundraise for their competitions by selling baked goods at the farmers market, cleaning chicken coops, and shoveling driveways.
The two are getting ready to qualify for the world Taekwondo Championships for mixed belts next year.