Taekwondo 2024 Paris Olympic Review

Men’s Flyweight -58kg

Despite not being considered the strongest South Korean fighter in recent years, Park Tae-joon (South Korea) relatively cruised through this field. He only needed three rounds in one bout, against Cyrian Ravet (France). On the other side of the draw, it was Gashim Magomedov (Azerbaijan) who advanced. He blitzed through Vito Dell’Aquila (Italy), who later withdraw with injury leaving Ravet with a bronze. Magomedov was also suffering and struggled to launch any attacks in the final because of a leg injury. The other bronze medal matchup saw the top two seeds clash. Despite conceding the first point, Mohamed Khalil Jendoubi (Tunisia) routed Adrian Vicente (Spain) only conceding four points and scoring twenty-three in the two rounds. 

🥇Park Tae-joon 🇰🇷

🥈Gashim Magomedov 🇦🇿

🥉Cyrian Ravet 🇫🇷

🥉Mohamed Khalil Jendoubi 🇹🇳

Prediction analysis; 3 medalists correct, 1 perfect prediction 

My original draft saw this going to Korea in the form of Jang Jun. As referenced, once the participant was confirmed as Park Tae-joon I changed that. His lack of form came to some extent due to not competing in major events as Jun was stronger. The fact he beat Jun should have been a clue to his form. 

Men’s Featherweight -68kg

Most people expected a final between Ulugbek Rashitov (Uzbekistan) and Bradly Sniden (Great Britain). Instead, Rashitov relatively cruised through, winning all his bouts in two rounds to become a two-time Olympic champion at 22. Sniden started well in his opening fight but was taken into a third round by Marko Golubic (Croatia). He then lost to Zaid Kareem (Jordan) in the following round, visibly hampered and scoring only two points in each of the three rounds before pulling out of his bronze-medal matchup. Edival Pontes (Brazil), who pushed Kareem to three rounds, claimed bronze by defeating Javier Perez (Spain) over three tight rounds.  

🥇Ulugbek Rashitov 🇺🇿

🥈Zaid Kareem 🇯🇴

🥉Edival Pontes 🇧🇷

🥉Liang Yushuai 🇨🇳

Prediction analysis; 1 medalists correct, 1 perfect prediction 

Sniden being injured cannot have helped. I mentioned Kareem as a potential medalist. 

Men’s Welterweight -80kg

The biggest upset in the opening round came as Edi Hrnic (Denmark) defeated Seif Eissa (Egypt) holding him scoreless in the second round. Henrique Marques (Brazil) also caused a surprise by beating Saleh Al-Sharabaty (Jordan). In the quarter finals, Mehran Barkhordari (Iran) upset Simone Alessio (Italy) in an enthralling bout. Trailling 9-8 in the third round, he came back to win 10-9. In the semi finals, Barkhordari came from behind again, winning high-scoring second and third rounds. The other semi was the opposite with four points being scored in two even rounds with Firas Katoussi (Tunisia) edging out Carl Nickolas (United States). In the final, it was again low-scoring and suiting Katoussi, he came out on top. Hrnic won two high-scoring bouts to win bronze whilst in a battle between the top-two seeds it was Alessio who prevailed.

🥇Firas Katoussi 🇹🇳

🥈Mehran Barkhordari 🇮🇷

🥉Edi Hrnic 🇩🇰

🥉Simone Alessio 🇮🇹

Prediction analysis; 1 medalists correct 

I mentioned the strong African representation and one of them took a win. 

Men’s Heavyweight +80kg

It was a surprise final in the heavyweight division with 21-year-old Caden Cunningham (Great Britain) facing 20-year-old Arian Salimi (Iran). Cunningham won the first round but Salimi took control, using his kicks helping him to win the following two rounds. Cunningham had beat former Olympic medalists Abdoul Issoufou (Niger), Rafael Alba (Cuba) and Cheick Sallah Cisse (Ivory Coast) to reach the final. Salimi beat Nikita Rafalovich (Uzbekistan) before coming from a round down against Carlos Sansores (Mexico) and Ivan Sapina (Croatia). Alba dominated Sapina to win another bronze whilst Cisse edged a back-and-forth contest with Sansores to take another medal. 

🥇Arian Salimi 🇮🇷

🥈Caden Cunningham 🇬🇧

🥉Cheick Sallah Cisse 🇨🇮

🥉Rafael Alba 🇨🇺

Prediction analysis; 3 medalists correct, 2 perfect prediction 

I was not far off here, Salimi was the one I missed 

Women’s Flyweight -49kg

Panipak Wongpattanakit (Thailand) cruised through to the final, with relatively one-sided bouts. Lena Stojkovic (Croatia) troubled her the most in the semi final, losing two rounds to zero and scoring five to the nineteen of Wontpattanakit. The bottom half of the draw saw upsets in the quarter finals as Adriana Cerezo (Spain) and Merve Dincel (Turkey) managed to only score five points combined when losing to Mobina Nematzadeh (Iran) and Guo Qing (China) respectively. Qing won the semi in two rounds to reach the final. In the final, Wongpattanakit took the opening round but Qing fought back. A tense final round saw the Thai fighter win 6-2 to win her second consecutive gold medal before retiring. 

🥇Panipak Wongpattanakit 🇹🇭

🥈Guo Qing 🇨🇳

🥉Mobina Nematzadeh 🇮🇷

🥉Lena Stojkovic 🇭🇷

 

Prediction analysis; 2 medalists correct

I tried to go for an outsider to beat Wongpattanakit but it wasn’t to be. I mentioned Stojkovic’s ability without translating it into top level wins. 

Women’s Featherweight -57kg

Heading into the tournament, the expectation was that we would see a final between Jade Jones (Great Britain) and Luo Zongshi (China). Neither of them made it. Instead the story was Kim Yu-jin (South Korea) who beat four of the top five seeds to take gold. The one she did not beat was Jones, who was eliminated in the first round by Miljana Reljik (North Macedonia) based on registered hits. The bout of the day arguably came in the first round featuring Kimia Alizadeh (Bulgaria) and Nahid Kiani (Iran). It saw 42 points scored over three rounds as Kiani came back from a round down. Kiani reached the final but was only able to score one point. The bronze medal matchups were quite low scoring. Skylar Park (Canada) beat Laetitia Aoun (Lebanon) scoring four points to her two. Alizadeh was held to zero points in the opening two rounds but still got the win over Zongshi to take the other bronze. 

🥇Kim Yu-jin 🇰🇷

🥈Nahid Kiani 🇮🇷

🥉Skylar Park 🇨🇦

🥉Kimia Alizadeh 🇧🇬

 

Prediction analysis; 1 medalists correct

Did anyone pick both Zongshi and Jones missing a medal?

Women’s Middleweight -67kg

The top quarter was blown apart as seeded Magda Wiet-Henin (France) and Ruth Gbagbi (Ivory Coast) lost in the first round to Kristina Teachout (United States) and Viviana Marton (Hungary). Their quarter-final clash produced 59 points, mostly scored by Marton who took the win. Sarah Chaari (Belgium), the number one seed, was the opposition in the semi-final, having only conceded four points in her opening two matches. It was a close semi-final but Marton pulled away late. In the bottom half, Song Jie (China) upset Julyana Al-Sadeq (Jordan) in a low-scoring contest, but it was Aleksandra Perisic (Serbia) who went through to the final. A body kick sealed the gold medal for Marton in two rounds. Chaari would show her class in the bronze-medal matchup, coming back to win after losing the first-round by fourteen. 

🥇Viviana Marton 🇭🇺

🥈Aleksandra Perisic 🇷🇸

🥉Sarah Chaari 🇧🇪

🥉Kristina Teachout 🇺🇸

Prediction analysis; 1 medalists correct

I don’t think I’d have picked Wiet-Henin to medal outside of France, but at home I thought she would do enough to medal. It is possibly a sport that has less of an advantage to home support 

Women’s Heavyweight +67kg

The top seven seeds all advanced through the round of sixteen, setting up some intriguing matchups in the quarter-finals. Nafia Kus (Turkey) edged through her quarter-final.The only top four seed to be eliminated was Rebecca McGowan (Great Britain) who went out to Svetlana Osipova (Uzbekistan). Osipova was less offensively potent in the semi-final but still defeated Lee Da-bin (South Korea) to make the final. Kus was then defeated in a low-scoring contest in the semi-final against Althea Laurin (France) 4-3. The final saw Laurin take the first round. She trailed in the second round entering the closing seconds but landed a head-kick to tie it up and win the decision based on superiority. 

🥇Althea Laurin 🇫🇷

🥈Svetlana Osipova 🇺🇿

🥉Lee Da-bin 🇰🇷

🥉Nafia Kus 🇹🇷

Prediction analysis; 3 medalists correct

The four medalists came from the six I mentioned as major contenders. It was a different final that I predicted, based on the recent form