On Thursday, July 25, he finally achieved that goal, winning the gold medal in Traditional Weapons, Sparring and Combat Sparring in the 70+ age division, fourth- and fifth-degree black belts at the ATA World Championships in Phoenix, Arizona.

But for the 72-year-old Schwab, reaching that goal was more than a personal achievement. It was a testament what hard work and focus can do.

The first time that Schwab attended the ATA World Championships was in 1999. From that time on, Schwab worked to qualify for the World Championships each year.

In the ATA, competitors with a high season point total are selected to attend the championships. Points can be earned by attending tournaments and scoring well in those tournaments — 5 points for a first-place finish. Schwab, therefore, travels around the country every year to different Taekwondo tournaments to try to collect enough points to qualify for the World Championships, which he has done so now in nine of the last 25 years.

Submitted photo Jim Schwab poses with the eight medals that he won during the American Taekwondo Association World Championships

During the competition, qualifiers go through a series of precise movements and are judged on factors varying from posture and balance to speed and power to rhythm and timing.

“Just like somebody in the Olympics doing their routine,” Schwab said. “Skaters, they have a routine that they follow. It’s a pre-designated series of movements that we do, and they have to be done to almost perfection if that’s possible.”

At Schwab’s first World Championship in 1999, there were only two events to compete in — Forms and Sparring. In that championship, Schwab took second in forms and third in sparring, not quite reaching the gold standard he set out to get.

“From that time on, I would try to get back,” Schwab said.

Schwab’s story with martial arts started later in life than many athletes. His son, Tim, was a big fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and wanted to get in on the fighting style that the four adolescent reptiles have created a passion for in many young hearts. In 1995, when Tim was 7 years old, Schwab joined him in at an ATA school in Burnsville, where Schwab was working as a police officer and firefighter.

“So there I am, I took a 7-year-old Tim one Saturday afternoon to this ATA school in Burnsville, and the instructor is telling me about his program,” Schwab said. “Then he said, ‘I’m going to have Tim come out on the mat and do some of the moves and things that we do, and Tim would feel so much more comfortable if you came out with him.’ So I go out there, and that’s how it all started.”

Schwab and his son both signed up that day. The two were at the ATA school six days a week if they could make it.

“We lived there. We loved it,” Schwab said. “We tested together. That’s what was so wonderful about it. We tested together, there are nine color belts … then we tested for first-degree [black belt], second-degree together, third-degree together. Throughout this we started going to tournaments.”

Those tournaments culminated in Schwab’s 1999 World Championships appearance and his first medals. Schwab did briefly take time away from Taekwondo, but Schwab soon heard a calling to return.

“I was away from martial arts for a little bit, then I got back into it,” Schwab said. “I started a club in New Ulm. I had run into a student of my instructors that lived in New Ulm. He wanted to start a club, so we decided to start a club, and I was back in it again. And every year except for the COVID year, I was back at the World Championships competing.”

Schwab didn’t place every year but did occasionally get a bronze or a silver medal in various events. Still, being named World Champion eluded him.

“I set a goal to get back the next year each time and work harder and try to improve on that goal, that dream that I had of becoming a World Champion,” Schwab said. “This year, it happened.”

Not only did Schwab receive a bronze medal in Forms, but finally, after years of hard work and dedication, Schwab took home a gold medal.

“On Thursday of that tournament week, I did my Forms and got third,” Schwab said. “Then I did the Weapons Form, and I got first place. Then the way it’s set up there is you come back on Friday, and then you compete for the other two events I qualified for, which was Sparring and Combat Sparring.”

Schwab placed first in both.

“At first, I didn’t really realize that I had won,” Schwab said. “And then I looked at my wife and she had tears in her eyes. And I looked at other people, and they’re jumping up and down. I finally realized that I had taken first.

“That’s some thing I had always wondered. Every year as I get closer to the World Championships, I wonder how I am going to react. I’m mostly a humble person, so I didn’t think I was going to do anything dramatic like you see with some people. I started to get tears in my eyes because I finally achieved this dream that I had. Then I came back the next day and did it again … I was just overwhelmed by people. They were so excited for me. It was very emotional just to finally have done that. Since that time when I think about it, I suppose a weight has been lifted from me too. I finally got this. I still can’t believe it. It just seems so surreal to have gone that long.”

Many of Schwab’s students were able to be there for him as he reached his own goal.

“It was really good, just the fact that I had these students that wrote notes for me to encourage me and go there,” Schwab said. “Then I had so many people that would come out that were friends of mine that came out and gave me a hug afterwards because they were so happy for me for finally achieving that dream that I had so many years ago.”

After the World Championships concluded, the ATA began its new season with a tournament in Phoenix on Sunday, July 28. Schwab started off the new season with a first-place finish in Combat Sparring and Sparring, a second-place finish in Weapons and a third-place finish in Forms, meaning he ended up bringing eight total medals home from Phoenix.

But one question was still left in Schwab’s mind.

Now what?

“I felt really good about it,” Schwab said. “And then I thought to myself, ‘Now I need to set new goals.’ This had been so long. Thinking back to 1999 when I would go to then Little Rock… I don’t want it to be the end.”

Schwab plans on continuing to try to qualify for the World Champions next season and is already scheduled to attend tournaments in Fargo, Sioux Falls, Eagan, Sioux City, Iowa, and Dallas, Texas. But Schwab has added a new goal to his agenda — becoming a Grand Master.

“I finally tested a couple years ago for my fifth-degree,” Schwab said. “In four more years I can test for my sixth-degree, which is my next goal, because that’s when you get your mastership in the ATA. I watched a number of people get their mastership down in Phoenix.”

Schwab still wants to get a World Championship in Forms as well, and will undoubtedly continue to work hard until he achieves that as well, even if it takes another 25 years.

“It keeps me young,” Schwab said. “People can’t believe that I do what I do.”

Schwab thinks of his experience as an excellent learning opportunity for his students at New Ulm ATA Martial Arts — that if you set goals and work hard, you can achieve anything.

“I told my students, when you go there, you set goals,” Schwab said. “But when you don’t achieve them, you work harder and try to come back, which is what I did. I thought this was a good example for my students because I didn’t get down. I didn’t get my World Championship, I’d come back the next year, I’d work harder. Didn’t get it that year, I’d just keep coming back. It wasn’t anything that happened real quick, because when I look back on it, it’s 25 years from the first time that I went there and competed until I finally achieved it. That was after being there nine times.”

That kind of dedication and work ethic can reach far beyond the school of martial arts. Schwab says that the lessons he teaches and demonstrates can be applied all across any discipline.

“I think it has a good message to a lot of people,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be Taekwondo. That’s what I tell my students too. In whatever, find something, set goals. And when you achieve them, set new goals. Always have something and never give up. All of those are messages that we talk about in classes daily. Have that never-give-up attitude and if you don’t get it the first time, keep going.

“Our Grand Master, the original person that went to Omaha, Nebraska and started ATA, his comment was always, ‘Today not possible, tomorrow, possible.’ That’s something that he lived with and the message he wanted his people to carry with them.

“That’s the nice thing about martial arts. You don’t do it just for the physical part, we do it for the mental part. The courtesy, the respect, the perseverance, never giving up…. It doesn’t have to be Taekwondo, it can be math, something you’re doing in school or home or whatever. But always find something and keep at it. If you don’t get it the first time, try again. Keep working at it.”

Schwab is currently the owner and chief instructor at the New Ulm ATA Martial Arts and trains weekly with his master, Ken Hoops, at Impact Martial Arts in Chanhassen. Schwab will be instructing and learning until next year, when he hopes to qualify for the next World Champions in Phoenix.