High levels of concentration and expert attention to detail are two characteristics needed to succeed in a pharmacy career.
But both are essential to Eva Sandersen outside of her life in pharmacy. As well as studying pharmacy at the University of Copenhagen, she is an 11-time European champion and world champion in taekwondo.
“It’s very detailed and has its own aesthetic,” Sandersen tells C+D shortly after returning to Denmark after a trip to Greece teaching the sport to other aspiring athletes.
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Sandersen specifically competes in recognised poomsae and freestyle poomsae, similar to what you may see on a gymnastics floor routine except with the taekwondo movements and no sparring against another athlete.
Her favourites patterns are pyongwon and jitae which involve a lot of kicks, as well as keumgang which involves balancing on one leg and holding it.
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“With Keumgang, I like the mind games. It’s difficult making it effortless and you have to overcome the fear of doing something wrong.
“I really love the perfectionism with poomsae because there’s always something you can make better. You can never stop which I enjoy. It might be pre-designed patterns, but you have to own it.”
Martial Arts
She feels proud to compete in taekwondo as the sport comes from Korea, a part of Sandersen’s family heritage. Her parents were adopted from Korea as children to live in Denmark.
‘It’s important to remember that a goal should be to have a good perspective on life and be grateful and happy with what we have as much as possible.’
Sandersen started taekwondo around eight years old after she stopped doing ballet. Her mother told her that her dad also did taekwondo when he was a child.
“I thought martial arts were cool but when I got into, I said ‘maybe this is not for me’. But my mum said to try it out properly first for at least one month.
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“It was more my confidence she could see that stopped me. I went with it, and the results came out of the hard work.”
Sandersen took the hard work ethic into her studies as well and became “drawn more towards science” as well as continuing to become a “perfectionist” in sports too.
But part of her drive to move towards a career in pharmacy came from her father who works as a pharmacist.
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Growing up, she remembers see how the profession offered a “good education” from his work.
“He told me what’s exciting about it – it’s such a broad education with chemistry, physics, maths and biology. And there’s so many options afterwards, you can work in industry, at the hospital or become an academic researcher.”
Priorities
Now, Sandersen has 18 months left of her master’s degree in pharmacy and is fitting in her studying alongside a globetrotting taekwondo schedule that has seen her travel as far as Hong Kong and Lima.
She’s just finished a placement at Steno Apotek, a 24-hour community pharmacy in Copenhagen, but is typically training between three to six hours a day on top of six hours of studying too.
But even with this schedule, she finds the challenge is fitting in as much taekwondo as she wants to do.
“I want to win all the time and if the goal is to win, I want to train more and become better, right?”
She adds that taekwondo has helped her “learn to prioritise” and she applied this for her studying and exam preparation as well as getting “the most out of training”.
“From taekwondo, I learnt to be disciplined and stick to things even though they’re difficult. Pharmacy is very difficult so no matter if you fail or succeed, you still go for it and study hard.”
Stunts and modelling
Sandersen says the connection she has to her father’s career through pharmacy is also replicated with her mother in taekwondo too.
Her mother started doing taekwondo when Sandersen began her classes as a child and became successful enough in it that she is now qualified to judge Danish competitions and became a part of the Danish talent team spotting new athletes.
“I’m very proud to do both and I’m very influenced by my parents and our background. Doing taekwondo gives me a connection to our roots and makes me feel more connected to our home country.”
But her success in the freestyle poomsae and ability to do tricking, which is completing kicks mid-air, has led to Sandersen finding work as a stunt performer.
“I went to a gym to do tricking, and some people invited me to do choreographies together. We did some work for music videos.”
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This has led to her acting and has appeared in a soon-to-be released feature film where she is performing stunts. She’s even started to find her own modelling work too.
“I enjoy that pharmacy and studying is not necessarily the same as taekwondo or stunt and acting, but I do find similarities,” Sandersen says, adding that together it helps to satisfy her “body”, her “brain” and her “creativeness”.
Happiness
Sandersen is currently a double gold European champion and a double silver World champion, but she still has more ambitions she wants to achieve.
This includes becoming an Olympic champion in poomsae. But unlike the sparring element of taekwondo, the Kukkiwon-defined style, which is an Olympic sport, the poomsae element is not yet.
“I want it to be in the Olympics. It’s been a dream since my first world championship in 2014.”
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But her main goal is just “being happy” as she’s experienced not getting the outcomes she’s wanted from being an athlete.
“And academically, it can be difficult to compare yourself to other classmates who do so well.
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“So, it’s important to remember that a goal should be to have a good perspective on life and be grateful and happy with what we have as much as possible. Because I feel lucky to go for my passion with taekwondo while studying pharmacy.
“I’d like to proceed with both, doing some cool research part time with pharmacy then continuing with taekwondo and sharing my experiences with younger athletes through training with them.”
