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. ALSO READ | Paris 2024 Olympics: USA sprinter Noah Lyles says his Summer Games run is over 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 thr.