Overcoming his archrival, an upset in the semifinals, relative inexperience on the international stage -- after it all, South Korea's Park Tae-joon finally stood alone atop the taekwondo world in becoming the first Korean ever to win the men's lightest weight class at the Olympics.
In the finals of the men's 58-kilogram (flyweight) event Wednesday, Park was declared the winner after Gashim Magomedov of Azerbaijan threw in the towel due to an apparent injury in the second round. Park had been well on his way to a 2-0 victory with a 13-1 lead over his opponent when the matched was called.
The 20-year-old prodigy is one of the most prominent young Korean athletes in taekwondo, but he had to overcome major obstacles on his way to Paris. He upset Mohamed Khalil Jendoubi of Tunisia, ranked No. 1 in the world, in the semifinals to make it to the gold medal stage.
But possibly one of his biggest challenges was in the domestic stage, when he faced off against Olympic bronze medalist Jang Jun in the national team’s qualification bout. Jang had beaten Park all six times the two had squared off against each other up to that point, but Park secured a 2-0 win over his nemesis to secure his first-ever Olympic berth.
Notching the gold medal in his Olympic debut, Park has now achieved what his mentor and idol Lee Dae-hoon, a two-time Olympic medalist, was unable to achieve in the flyweight class. Lee won silver at 58 kilograms and bronze at 68 kilograms, but gold always eluded him.
Park's victory not only presented his nation its first-ever Olympic gold medal in the flyweight class, but also the first Olympic championship in any men's category since 2008. South Korea by far has had more success in the Olympics in taekwondo than any other country, but it has been mired in a relative medal drought in recent years, particularly in the men's competition.
Since 2008, South Korea won had three gold medals and one silver in women's events, with one silver and five bronze in men's events. The biggest disappointment came in Tokyo three years ago, when South Korea managed just one silver and two bronze medals, marking the first Summer Games ever where the country failed to win a single gold medal.
With Park's win on Wednesday, the men's 80-kilogram (middleweight) class and women's heavyweight class remain the only taekwondo events where no Korean has ever won a gold medal.
The latest win by the young competitor also gave South Korea its 12th gold medal at the Paris Games, bringing the country within one of matching the most gold medals it has won any Summer Olympics at 13, in 2008 and 2012. Anticipations are running high here for the country's best-ever outing, with the Koreans expected to contend in some of the remaining events.
