Founder & visionary

Dr. Habib Zarifeh

Habib Zarifeh (born 18 September 1975, Beirut) is a Lebanese taekwondo champion, former national team captain and national head coach, President of the Lebanese Taekwondo Federation since 2016, and the founder of the Champions Elite taekwondo academy. He is also an oral surgeon and cosmetic dentist, Head of Oral Surgery at CMC Hospital Beirut and founder of Smile Infinity® Medical Centers. In 2026 he was inducted into the Taekwondo Hall of Fame®.

Early life and education

Habib Zarifeh was born in Beirut in 1975, at the start of the Lebanese civil war. He enrolled at the Saint Joseph University School of Dental Medicine in 1993 and, the same year, at eighteen, began taekwondo at his old school, Mont La Salle in Ain Saadeh, under Grand Master Frederic Sarraf. He earned his black belt in eighteen months. He graduated as a dentist in 1999 and later obtained a Master of Science in Laser Dentistry from RWTH Aachen University in Germany.

Athlete (1995–2007)

Zarifeh became a senior member of the Mont La Salle team that has held the Lebanese national title without interruption since the early 1990s. He won the Lebanese championship in the −58 kg category in 1999 — the year of his graduation — and held the national title and the captaincy of the national team until his retirement from competition in 2007. Between 1999 and 2007 he collected 37 national and international medals, among the first international medals won by a Lebanese taekwondo athlete.

1997	Silver medal, West Asian Games
1999	Lebanese champion, −58 kg; national team captain
2002	Silver medal, Francophone World Cup, Paris · Gold medal and tournament MVP, Mediterranean Championship, Tunisia · Asian Games, Busan (−54 kg)
2003–2005	Organiser of the Lebanon Open, Beirut
2005	World Taekwondo Championships
2006	Asian Games, Doha
2007	Retires from the national team; begins coaching

National team coach (2007–2016)

Zarifeh joined the national coaching staff in 2007 and served as National Head Coach of Lebanon from 2010 to 2016, leading the national team training committee. Under his direction Lebanese taekwondo recorded a series of firsts: a bronze medal at the 2009 Asian Junior Championships and Lebanon’s first — and so far only — Youth Olympic medal, Michel Samaha’s bronze at Singapore 2010; the country’s first world junior medal, won by Bassel Khalil at the 2010 World Junior Championships in Mexico; and the first senior Olympic qualification in Lebanese taekwondo, Andrea Paoli at London 2012, where she carried the national flag. The period also brought several Asian Championship medals.

President of the Lebanese Taekwondo Federation (2016–present)

Elected President of the Lebanese Taekwondo Federation in 2016, Zarifeh was re-elected by acclamation in 2025 for a third consecutive four-year term. His tenure has been marked by the federation’s growth on and off the mat: the organisation of five Beirut Open international championships (G1 and G2), the 24th Asian Taekwondo Championships in Beirut in June 2021 — the first senior continental championship hosted by Lebanon, where the host nation won three bronze medals — the 2023 Asian Cadet and Junior Championships, the 2023 Arab Championship, the South Korean Ambassador’s Cup, and the opening of the Kukkiwon Office in Lebanon in 2023.

In 2021 the federation inaugurated Champions Elite as a modern high-performance training centre for the national teams, with certified physical and mental preparation staff and federation-accredited doctors. During his presidency Lebanon has won three world medals and more than thirty medals at Asian Championships and Asian Games, and in 2024 Laetitia Aoun reached the Olympic semifinal in Paris, finishing fifth — Lebanon’s best Olympic result in any sport in 44 years. In 2026 Aoun qualified for the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya.

Champions Elite

Zarifeh founded Champions Elite, the taekwondo academy that runs the Mont La Salle programme in Ain Saadeh and a network of clubs across Lebanon, with a branch in Dubai at Champs Sports Club, Al Quoz. The academy trains children from four years old through to the national championship squad, under World Taekwondo rules and the Kukkiwon grading system, and operates the Champions Elite Academy Portal for its athletes, parents and trainers. The Mont La Salle team won its 35th consecutive Lebanese national title in October 2025 and its 36th in 2026, in the seniors category, men and women.

Taekwondo Hall of Fame® (2026)

On 15 August 2026 Zarifeh was inducted into the Official Taekwondo Hall of Fame® at its induction ceremony at the Hyatt Regency Jersey City, New Jersey, USA, in recognition of a career spanning competition, national coaching and federation leadership.

Medicine and entrepreneurship

Outside taekwondo, Zarifeh is an oral surgeon and cosmetic dentist. He is Head of Oral Surgery at CMC Hospital Beirut, affiliated with Johns Hopkins International, and an international speaker on laser dentistry. He founded Smile Infinity® Medical Centers — present in twelve countries on four continents, including Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, Côte d’Ivoire, Hungary and the United States — and the Ferrari Dental Clinic in Beirut, and he holds four registered trademarks: One Day Implant®, ZEvolution Veneers®, Smile Lift® and Smile Infinity®.

Personal life

Zarifeh is married to a dentist; their three sons compete in taekwondo in the junior categories and are national and international champions.