John Paul Lizardo

Meet the bemedaled taekwondo blackbelter whose wholesome charm alone is about as deadly as his roundhouse kicks.

Some people have to sing, dance or act to get a chance to appear on television. Not 17-year-old John Paul "Japoy" Lizardo, who merely has to punch, kick, and block his way to stardom. Yes, Japoy is that taekwondo player in that tonic drink commercial. The 5'6" Chinese-looking jin has become so popular that his name alone elicits shrieks in highschool and college campus corridors. Parents, in turn, love him because of his wholesome image.

And he is as good as they come. Since he joined the national team two years ago, he's been a very responsible athlete and dutiful son. Unlike many young men of his age, he has no vice; he saves up his money, and has already bought himself a mitsubishi van and digicam. Japoy got into taekwondo at age 11. He was originally into basketball, but an incident in school led to the dissolution of their team, and so Japoy switched to the Korean martial art instead. He is now a blackbelter and was recently moved to the senior national team, under finweight category.

These days, notwithstanding the occasional TV guesting (he's appeared in Berks, Eat Bulaga, SOP, and Celebrity Turns, among others), Japoy is busy studying - and, of course, training. School is De La Salle University, where he is appropriately taking up a rather interesting course called Sports Management, though he originally wanted to take up Communication Arts.

Apart from being a national player, Japoy is also in the varsity team of DLSU, which expressed its interest in him as early as when he was in third year higschool at Diliman Preparatory School. Talk about unfair advantage.

Understandably, his schedules are so packed these days. For the national team alone, he trains two hours every night at the Rizal Coliseum. For school, it's another two hours every other day.

All that practice has been worth it, so far. In 2002, he won bronze at the First Asian Junior Taekwondo Championships in Taiwan, and silver at the US Open in Florida. In 2001, he bagged the gold at the Korea Open.

Japoy remembers the pure joy of watching Bruce Lee movies as a kid, together with his two other siblings. "I grew up in a sports- oriented surrounding, because my dad is a good swimmer and basketball player," he explains. His mom adds that, even as a child, Japoy was very active, "parating malikot."

She says her son "is focused on studies and training" and has no time for a girlfriend - although he does have a crush, "isang artista na nakikita niya sa ABS-CBN. Ang gusto ni Japoy sa babae ay someone who is simple and God-fearing." And who could that lucky girl be?

Starstudio Magazine Article (May 2004 Issue)
-James P. Ong

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