Taekwondo academy · Lebanon · Dubai
Champions Elite®
Champions of Lebanon — 36 years in a row
Founded by Dr. Habib Zarifeh, Champions Elite carries the Mont La Salle legacy — Lebanese national champions 36 years in a row, seniors men and women, 2026 — into a modern academy of nineteen clubs for children, competitors and national-level athletes, trained under World Taekwondo rules in Lebanon and the UAE.
36
Consecutive Lebanese national team titles — seniors, men and women, 2026
19
Clubs and training venues across Lebanon and Dubai
2
Olympians from our ranks — London 2012 and Paris 2024
5th
Paris 2024 Olympic Games — Laetitia Aoun, semifinalist
Our emblem
Three legends
Every athlete at Champions Elite trains in the footsteps of the three fighters who took Lebanese taekwondo where it had never been.
Andrea Paoli
Lebanon’s first Olympic taekwondo qualifier and flag bearer at London 2012. Asian Games bronze 2010, Mediterranean Games bronze 2013, five consecutive national titles.
Michel Samaha
Bronze at the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games (−73 kg) — Lebanon’s first and only Youth Olympic medal — and the country’s flag bearer at those Games.
Laetitia Aoun
Fifth at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and flag bearer; Asian Games bronze 2018, Asian Championships bronze 2024, national champion 2025, qualified for the 2026 Asian Games.
Origin
From Mont La Salle to Champions Elite
In the early 1990s the taekwondo section of Collège Mont La Salle, on a pine-covered hillside above Beirut, won its first Lebanese championship. It has not lost one since. The Lebanese press calls it “the green and white dynasty”: depth in every weight category, a staff that manages the decisive moments, and a culture of performance that is not negotiable.
Habib Zarifeh joined that team as a dental student in 1993, became national champion and captain, then national head coach, and since 2016 has led the Lebanese Taekwondo Federation. Champions Elite is the academy he built on that foundation — a high-performance centre with certified physical and mental preparation staff and medical follow-up, running the Mont La Salle program and a network of clubs from Batroun to the Bekaa, and a children’s academy in Dubai.
Clubs
Nineteen clubs, one curriculum
From Mont La Salle in Ain Saadeh to Roumieh, Zalka, Dbayeh, Jounieh, Zouk, Ajaltoun, Achkout, Ballouneh, Baskinta, Batroun, Zahle and the Bekaa — and Champs Sports Club in Dubai. Every club teaches the same Kukkiwon curriculum and feeds the same championship squad; every trainer is a Champions Elite master.
Little Champions
Ages 4–9. Fundamentals, coordination, respect and focus — confidence before the first coloured belt.
Youth & Cadets
Ages 10–17. Poomsae and kyorugi, Kukkiwon belt progression and a structured entry into federation competition.
Elite Team
Juniors and seniors. The championship squad: WT competition training, physical and mental preparation, medical follow-up.
Founder & visionary
Dr. Habib Zarifeh
Lebanese champion (1999) and national team captain until 2007 · 37 national and international medals · National Head Coach 2010–2016 · President of the Lebanese Taekwondo Federation since 2016 · Kukkiwon 5th Dan · Taekwondo Hall of Fame® inductee, 2026.
“Taekwondo gave me discipline before it gave me medals. Champions Elite exists so that the next generation gets both.”
Standards we train by
World Taekwondo competition rules. Kukkiwon poom and dan grading, certified through the Kukkiwon Office in Lebanon. Athletes licensed with the Lebanese Taekwondo Federation, competing for Mont La Salle in the national championship. Weight management, medical follow-up and anti-doping education in line with federation and WT athlete-protection standards.
