PARIS, France (Oct. 4, 2024) - It was late evening, August 10, and as Althea Laurin marched from the elevated balcony, down the broad staircase and onto the field of play for the final of the W+67kg category, the atmosphere in the Grand Palais was electric.

 

Aug. 10 was the final day of the Olympic Taekwondo competition. The closing ceremony of the 2024 Paris Summer Games was just one day away.

 

Team France had headed into the competition with high hopes, but had earned a single bronze. Everything now rested on the shoulders of 22-year-old Laurin, the current World Champion and Tokyo 2020 bronze medalist.

 

The burden was heavy.

 

“It’s the Olympics, it’s only coming every four years and you never know if you could participate again,” Laurin recalled. “As a French athlete, the Games were in Paris and we never had a Taekwondo gold medal before.”

 

During that long walk down to the stadium floor, the import of what she was doing played across her mind.

 

“I thought, ‘It’s time to make history,” she said. “You can quickly feel crushed by the pressure…but it felt like a mission.”

 

It would be no easy fight. Laurin’s opponent, 2022 World Champion Svetlana Osipova of Uzbekistan, had been fighting masterfully all day.

 

Laurin fought against distractions.

 

“The crowd was shouting, jumping - I think we were all hungry for that final,” she said. “I had to stay focused on what I had to do.”

 

Finally, Laurin won with a score of 2-0.

 

“I exploded in joy: I was Olympic champion, the very first in the history of French Taekwondo,” she said. “I’d been dreaming of this moment and it became reality. It’s the best thing ever!”

 

The entire stadium rose to its feet as the French fighter danced and pulled her coach onto the mats.

 

Long-time Taekwondo watchers recognized the historicity of Laurin’s victory.

 

“I have been in this sport for 24 years,” said former French World Champion and current TV commentator Gwladys Epanque. “Now, we can finally say, ‘We are the best.’”  

 

The medal ceremony would be iconic, as the crowd burst into "La Marseillaise:” “Arise, children of the Motherland! The day of glory has arrived!”

 

The lyrics reverberated off the Grand Palais’ walls and roof. No Taekwondo venue has ever been so blessed with such an awesome combination of built-in acoustics and crowd passion.

 

“Many had people told me: ‘Please, make us sing La Marseillaise at home,” Laurin said. “Here it was! It made me feel proud that we could share that beautiful moment.”

 

Before Aug. 10, Laurin did not have a fighting nickname. After it, she said, “You can call me ‘The Dame de Fer’ (‘The Iron Lady’).” That is a reference to Paris’ most famous landmark, the Eiffel Tower, on which the Olympic rings were welded.

 

Laurin’s journey to the Grand Palais took her from the streets of St. Denis, where she grew up to parents of Martiniquean heritage. St. Denis is a Parisian neighborhood known for its vibrant multi-culturalism but also for its high crime rate.

 

There, her mother told her daughter that she ought to learn sport. Laurin dutifully complied.

 

However, when she was asked to choose a sport, by “pure luck,” the young girl, who spoke softly at the time, joined the wrong queue and found herself taking her first Taekwondo lesson.

 

She loved it.

 

“I absolutely enjoyed my first session,” she said. “I felt like I belonged there.”

 

Taekwondo would provide more than sportive joy: It also provided a calling.

 

“At first, I enjoyed using my legs and fighting,” she said. “Then one day I saw the Olympics on TV and I knew deeply what I wanted to do.”

 

She made her international competition debut in 2016. In the years since then, has been forging herself into a master fighter.

 

Tall, fast and flexible, Laurin deploys a deadly accurate front leg to the head. She also wears the right headset for a combat sport.

 

“I am aggressive, willing to learn and getting tougher mentally over the years,” she said.

 

Looking ahead, she hopes her gold medal victory will further elevate the popularity of Taekwondo.

 

“I think [Taekwondo] will gain much more attention than before because of this Olympic gold medal,’ she said. “We have to put in a lot of effort for Taekwondo to gain more popularity in France going forward and strive to get even better.”