Park Taejoon restores South Korea’s pride with taekwondo gold

Korea’s Taejoon Park celebrates after winning a men’s 58kg Taekwondo final match against Azerbaijan’s Gashim Magomedov during the Paris Olympics 2024, at the Grand Palais, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Park Taejoon restored South Korea’s pride on the opening day of the taekwondo competition at the Paris Olympics 2024.

Taekwondo is South Korea’s national martial art, and the country suffered a humiliation in Tokyo, where it failed to win a single gold medal for the first time since the sport became a medal event in 2000.

Park set the record straight by routing his opponent in a brutal final for the gold medal.

“It was my childhood dream,” Park said.

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In the men’s 58 kilos class, Park demolished Gashim Magomedov of Azerbaijan, who soldiered on but retired injured.

After contact with his opponent’s leg in the opening round, Magomedov crashed to the canvas, clutching his left leg in pain. He was attended to by doctors and managed to resume the fight.

Trailing 7-0 with 14 seconds left, he limped and sat again to receive further treatment, losing the round without scoring a point. Magomedov was helped off the canvas but returned for the second round and continued without threatening his opponent, who capped off his masterpiece with a superb turning kick to the head.

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Magomedov’s ordeal continued a bit longer as Park landed a final kick to his back that ejected him from the combat arena. It was the coup de grace, and Magomedov called it quits.

“In Tokyo, South Korea did not get a gold medal, it was a bit frustrating and sad. Today I’m honored and proud. The whole team has worked hard to make sure we were prepared here,” Park said.

The men’s bronze medals went to Cyrian Ravet of France and Mohamed Khalil Jendoubi of Tunisia.

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.