Taekwondo's Park Tae-jun 'Dojang Challenge'... Defeats World No.1 to Secure Silver Medal [Paris Olympics]

Park Tae-jun (20, Kyung Hee University), leading South Korea's taekwondo team at the 2024 Paris Olympics, defeated world No. 1 Mohamed Khalil Jendoubi (Tunisia) to advance to the men's 58kg final.

On the 7th (local time) at the Grand Palais in Paris, France, Park Tae-jun beat Jendoubi 2-0 in rounds (6-2, 13-6) in the men's 58kg semifinal, securing a silver medal.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Park Tae-jun scored first with a body attack, conceded an equalizer within a minute, but struck the opponent's body repeatedly just before the end of the first round to take it 6-2.

At the start of the second round, Jendoubi gained momentum with a successful head attack, but Park countered by kicking Jendoubi's head with his left foot. After exchanging attacks, Park led 8-6 and, 20 seconds before the end, landed a head attack that was initially not scored, prompting a video review.

The review confirmed Park's head strike, extending his lead to 11-6 and securing the advantage. Park then landed another body strike to seal the victory.

With just one more win, Park Tae-jun will become the first South Korean taekwondo athlete to win a gold medal in this weight class at the Olympics. Additionally, South Korea, the birthplace of taekwondo, which failed to win gold at the 2020 Tokyo Games, will reclaim its honor by winning gold for the first time in eight years since the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.

In the men's 58kg category, the best result was a silver medal won by Lee Dae-hoon, coach of Daejeon City Hall, at the 2012 London Games. Subsequently, Kim Tae-hoon and Jang Jun won bronze medals at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro and 2020 Tokyo Games, respectively.

Since the 2008 Beijing Games, where Son Tae-jin (68kg) and Cha Dong-min (over 80kg) won gold, no South Korean male athlete has won gold. If Park Tae-jun wins one more match, he will be recorded as the first South Korean male taekwondo gold medalist in 16 years.

Park's final opponent will be the winner of the semifinal between 2021 Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Vito Dell'Aquila (Italy, ranked 4th) and Gasim Magomedov (Azerbaijan, ranked 26th). Park's semifinal opponent, Jendoubi, was the silver medalist at the Tokyo Olympics. Although Jendoubi defeated South Korea's taekwondo star Jang Jun in the semifinals back then, he was stopped by South Korea's taekwondo "rising star" Park Tae-jun this time.

Park Tae-jun, first selected as a national representative in 2022 while attending Hanseong High School, is competing in his first Olympics. After defeating world No. 3 Jang Jun at the Olympic qualifiers in February to secure his ticket to Paris, he has maintained his momentum to reach the final stage.

In October 2022, during his senior year of high school, Park had already defeated both Jendoubi and Dell'Aquila to win the World Taekwondo (WT) Grand Prix Series 3rd event.