Park Tae-jun (Kyung Hee University, 20), the vanguard of South Korea's Taekwondo national team, secured a spot in the quarterfinals by winning the first match at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Park Tae-jun (world ranking 5th) defeated Venezuela's Yohandry Granado (29th) 2-0 (12-0, 12-0) in the men's 58kg round of 16 held on the 7th (local time) at the Grand Palais in Paris, France. Park dominated from the first round with a 12-0 score and continued to overwhelm his opponent with another 12-0 in the second round, securing an easy victory.
This was the first match for Park Tae-jun and the South Korean Taekwondo team at the Paris Olympics.
On the 7th (local time), Park Tae-jun of Korea competed against Yohandry Granados of Venezuela in the men's 58kg round of 16 Taekwondo match at the Grand Palais Taekwondo Arena in Paris, France, for the 2024 Paris Olympics. [Photo by Yonhap News]
Park Tae-jun will compete against the host country's promising athlete, Cyriane Lave, for a spot in the semifinals. According to the Olympic sparring rankings compiled by the World Taekwondo Federation (WT) until June, just before the tournament, Park ranks higher than Lave (11th). If Park also defeats Lave, he is likely to face Mohamed Khalil Jendoubi (Tunisia), the top-ranked athlete in this weight class and a strong favorite to win. Jendoubi won the silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics held in 2021 and is a formidable opponent who defeated South Korea's sparring star Jang Jun (Korea Gas Corporation) in the semifinals at that time.
Park Tae-jun, who was first selected as a national representative in 2022 while attending Hanseong High School, is competing in his first Olympics at this Paris event. He earned his ticket to Paris by defeating world-ranked number 3 Jang Jun in the Olympic qualifiers last February.
South Korea has yet to win a gold medal in this weight class. The best result was silver won by 'Taekwondo star' Lee Dae-hoon, coach at Daejeon City Hall, at the 2012 London Olympics.
Since then, Kim Tae-hoon and Jang Jun won bronze medals at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro and 2020 Tokyo Olympics, respectively.
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