(July 25, 2024) – With the days counting down to the Taekwondo Competition of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the eyes of the fandom and the punditry are focusing on up-and-comers and veterans and star players.

In the second edition of a series that examines all eight Olympic weight categories, we shine a spotlight on the W-57kg and M-68kg.

 

Women -57kg

One of the most noted personalities in the game will be fighting in the Olympics - under her third flag. Kimia Alizadeh Zenozi was the first Iranian female athlete ever to win an Olympic medal: bronze, in Rio. She subsequently fought in Tokyo as a refugee, and in Paris has found a home with Team Bulgaria.

 

Team Iran also has a player in the division. Nahid Kiyanichandeh is a current world champion; Paris will be her second Olympics. A long-time player, she is at her physical peak, and will be fighting with the knowledge that now is the time.

 

Team Great Britain’s legend Jade Jones, a double Olympic Gold Medalist in London and Rio, is at the twilight of her competitive career but will be striving to write sportive history in Paris: The first Taekwondo fighter ever to win three Olympic golds.

 

One of the most dangerous players in the category is China’s Zhongshi Luo. She owns a chest full of medals from the World Championships, Asian Championships, Grand Prix, Grand Slam and Opens. In Paris, she will be seeking to add an Olympic medal to top off her massive collection.

 

Hailing from Chinese Taipei is two-time Youth World Champion, two-time World Champion Silver Medalist and Tokyo 2020 Silver Medalist Chia Ling-Lo. That is an impressive roster for an athlete who is only 22, and she will benefit from the excellent coaching of her team - an ever-present threat in the women’s division.

 

One of the busiest players on the circuit is Canada’s Skylar Park. A third-generation Taekwondoin, Park has been in the sport since infancy, has the perfect physique for the game, and is a constant sight on the mats. A youth world champ, she has become a consistent medalist in the Grand Prix, and will be hunting for a medal in her second Olympics.

 

Hatice Kubra Ilgun represents Team Turkiye, one of the strongest women’s squads in the sport. One of the longest-playing veterans in Taekwondo, she has been fighting at the elite level since 2009. The owner of medals in virtually every competition, she will be aiming to improve on the Olympic bronze she won in Tokyo.

 

Men -68kg

The man to beat in the category is reigning Olympic Champion Ulugbek Rashitov. In Tokyo, he won Uzbekistan its first Taekwondo gold medal and in 2023 earned two Grand Prix victories. Gifted, upbeat and just 22, Rashitov could well make it two in a row in Paris.

 

Up-and-comer and current World Champion Marko Golubic fights for Croatia, a fast-rising team that has, in recent years, been scoring big in the highly competitive European league. Paris is his Olympic debut.

 

Team GB’s current World Champion Bradly Sinden is one of the sport’s most consistent medalists and like Golubic, is a current world champion. (World Championships offers more weight divisions than Olympics.) After winning silver in Tokyo, he stated, in an agonized press conference, that he had wanted gold.

Far less experienced than Sinden, Hungary’s Levente Mark Jozsa has just one gold medal at the elite level: From Manchester’s 2023 series final. Nevertheless, he is seen as a player to watch.

 

Hakan Recber of Team Turkiye is, like Sinden, a battler. The category’s third current world champion title, he is a previous youth world champion with spectacular technique who won bronze at Tokyo 2020.   

 

The class also features refugee athlete Yahya Al Ghotany. The Syrian fights out of the Taekwondo Humanitarian Center in Jordan’s Azraq Refugee Camp. He will carry the flag of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team on behalf of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team during the Opening Ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.