Billy Petrone
Billy began training at East Coast Tae Kwon Do when he was 7 years old. He quickly proved to be very talented and by the time he was 12 he was sparring with the men at the school. Sir Billy has competed in literally thousands and has won hundreds of them. Billy Petrone has won Grand Champion at least once at virtually every point tournament that East Coast regularly attends, including winning Grand Champion 3x at S. Henry Cho’s All American Open, the tournament that made Chuck Norris famous. But Sir Billy’s greatest achievements were in the realm of Full Contact Tae Kwon Do.
Billy Petrone was the #1 Middleweight fighter in the United States from 1991 to 1997. He was also a member of the U.S. National Tae Kwon Do Team (Olympic Team). In 1992 Billy Petrone fought to a draw with U.S. National Team member Herb Perez for the right to represent the United States at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. Billy agreed to bow out to the older and more experienced Perez and became the alternate for the 92 Games. Perez eventually won gold in Barcelona, but Sir Billy continued competing in numerous world events and at one time was the 3rd ranked Men’s Middleweight in the world. Tae Kwon Do would not be an Olympic event again until the year 2000 after Sir Billy had retired from competition to start a family, but to this day, no other tae kwon do fighter from Connecticut has reached the level of success as Billy Petrone.
Sir Billy currently owns his own business which keeps him busy, but he can still be seen training at East Coast Tae Kwon Do when he has time. Both of his daughters have trained in Tae Kwon Do and he looks forward to the day when his infant son, Billy Petrone 3rd begins his tae kwon do training.
RANK
4th Degree Black Belt