Wired Life in the Roanoke Valley

I was wrapping up a blog post during today’s PRC15 session, that was taught by Marcus Murray, and I decided I needed a picture to headline it so I checked the web. Using the Google I looked up “”Marcus Murray” Sweden” and was really surprised to find a whole bunch of articles referencing someone with that name – in a different line of work. I didn’t think much of it until I checked out the Google Images section, here is what I found:

All of the hits I found were about a Marcus Murray who is a world-class tae-kwon-do athlete. The picture looked like our presenter (in blue) performing what looks like a round-house kick into the mid-section of Poland’s Karol Franz (according to EuroSport).

I was dying to know if our mild-mannered, chocolate-giving, presenter was this crazy kicking machine, so I emailed Marcus.

I just got his response, he is the world-class athlete I thought he was. According to Marcus, he just retired and he has a very impressive tae-kwon-do career. He has been ranked among the top 10 athletes in his weight and even competed at the 2000 Sydney Olympics!

Most recently, Marcus competed in the European Olympic trials but he missed securing a trip to this year’s games. (Click here to see Finland’s Teemu Heino fight Sweden’s Marcus Murray.) Nonetheless, getting to the Olympic trials (and the Olympics in 2000) is amazingly difficult. Marcus pointed out that it was really cool to be presenting for Tech Ed in the same facility where, twelve years ago, he competed in the US Tae Kwon Do Open.

So, next time Marcus gives you some advice in a seminar you better listen. The advice might keep your company safe and he may just beat you down if you don’t (see below for an example).

P.S. – Did anyone at Microsoft actually know this? HELLO?! This is pretty cool stuff and it is nowhere in your speaker (or MVP) biography. If I had an Olympic athlete on my speaking schedule I would mention it. Marcus might be bringing the same excellence to IT Security as he did to the mat..

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 10th, 2008 at 1:07 am and is filed under Marcus Murray, TechED, TechED 2008. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.