South Korea is back in force in taekwondo.
After leaving the Tokyo Games without a single gold medal in the sport it invented, the East Asian nation claimed a second title in as many days at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
It came down to Kim Yu-jin in the women’s 57-kilogram division on Thursday, a day after Park Tae-joon claimed the title in the men’s 58kg class.
The tall and lanky Kim defeated several athletes with a serious pedigree to reach the final, including the top-seeded Luo Zongshi of China in the semifinals. She was then ruthless in the gold-medal match to hand a brutal defeat to world champion Nahid Kiyani Chandeh of Iran.
“I believed in myself, that gave me extra confidence and I did not think about the rankings of my opponents,” Kim said. “I also put in a lot of efforts, that’s how I got the gold medal.”
Kimia Alizadeh, who was the first Iranian female athlete ever to win an Olympic medal when she claimed bronze in Rio de Janeiro as an 18-year-old, secured another medal of the same color eight years later but for another country.
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After defecting from Iran, Alizadeh is now representing Bulgaria. She lost her opening-round match against Kiyani Chandeh and later claimed bronze through a repechage process.
In the men’s competition, Ulugbek Rashitov of Uzbekistan won back-to-back Olympic gold medals in the 68-kilogram division.
Rashitov, who won the title in Tokyo three years ago, won his four bouts at the Paris Games without losing a single round. He wrapped up the title with a victory Thursday over Zaid Kareem of Jordan, who reached the final in his Olympic debut.
The 22-year-old Rashitov opened up the fight with a beautiful turning kick to Zaid’s head and was then in total control.
“I was just 19 for my first Olympic Games, I did not realize what it meant,” Rashitov said when asked if he would chase a third gold in four years at the Los Angeles Games. “Now I realize how demanding it is, mentally and psychologically.”
Liang Yushuai of China and Edival Pontes of Brazil took the bronze medals.
Taekwondo tournaments at the Olympics award two bronze medals, with the losing semifinalists facing two contestants who lost to the finalists in the elimination phase but gained another podium chance through repechage.
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Jade Jones failed in he bid to become the first taekwondo athlete to win three Olympic gold medals.
Competing in her fourth Olympics, Jones lost her opening bout in Paris against Miljana Reljikj of North Macedonia. In a close contest, both fighters were tied 1-1 at the end of the deciding third round and Reljiki was awarded the win on superiority.
The 31-year-old Jones was the first British athlete to become an Olympic taekwondo champion at the 2012 London Olympics. She kept her title four years later in Rio de Janeiro and then suffered an early exit in Tokyo.
Jones competed in Paris after she was cleared of any wrongdoing by the British anti-doping agency following a failure to submit herself to a drug test last December.
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