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NICHOLAS Dusard's reputation at the International Sports Karate Association (ISKA) United States Open precedes not only the 35-year-old fighter but Jamaica as well.

Dusard, Jamaica's most decorated martial artist, has won more ISKA US Open gold medals than any other fighter in the history of the tournament, having fought at the world's biggest martial arts competition held in Orlando, Florida, as a teen, missing only the COVID-19 years of 2020 and 2021.

Dusard, who will compete in continuous and clash sparring at the three-day event, is aiming at his third consecutive and fourth double-gold since 2019.

A two-time Night of Champions winner, former Wolmer's Boys' School scholar and 2006 Prime Minister's Youth Award winner for Excellence in Sports, Dusard has been dominating the US Open from his junior years.

In his final year as a junior athlete, 2007, Dusard bypassed what local martial arts experts said was a sure gold medal at the International Taekwondo Federation (ITF) World Championship in Canada, opting to concentrate on his Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) sittings.

Dusard nailed eight passes to secure his spot in lower sixth form. As soon as his exams were out of the way, Dusard, unseeded, hit the international scene in July to pound his way to a junior blackbelt gold at the US Open, setting a template of sporting and educational excellence, which has become the hallmark for successive generations of young martial artists such as Sharic Bowen, who makes his Jamaica combined martial arts team debut at the 2025 US Open.

Dusard further created local martial arts history by winning Jamaica's first ever ITF senior gold medal as an 18-year-old at the Pan-Am Championships in Brazil.

Dusard's mantra that academics compliments sports, influenced former fighter Tashauna Grannum, who is now an attorney-at-law practising in the United States and current two-time Night of Champions winner, Richard Stone, now a medical doctor at the University Hospital of the West Indies.

"Each helps the other," Dusard pointed out. "Martial arts might be a sport but it is also mental and that's what you need for school, to be mentally tough and able to take pressure," he added.

"If you can train and study hard, you can do whatever you want to but don't let one overshadow the other. It takes a lot of hard work and you must be very humble," advised the teen star, who now operates his own martial arts studio overseas.