‘Pure joy and gratitude’ for Paris 2024 taekwondo medallist Skylar Park – Team Canada

Candice Ward/COC

It’s been a protracted day for Skylar Park, en path to an Olympic bronze medal in taekwondo—however she’s had her household together with her all the best way.

The 25-year-old received Canada’s first Olympic taekwondo medal in 16 years on Thursday, claiming bronze within the girls’s 57kg occasion. Proper alongside her was her father Jae Park, who can also be her coach.

“It’s an honour,” mentioned Skylar, of successful bronze. “I used to be simply telling my dad and my crew, I don’t suppose it’s totally sunken in but.

“However when that last buzzer went off, it was simply pure pleasure and gratitude for what we’ve been by means of as a crew and my household.”

Her household has been by means of loads within the sport of taekwondo. There are 16 black belts in her prolonged household, together with her brothers Tae-Ku Park and Braven Park, who competed with Skylar ultimately yr’s Pan American Video games. Tae-Ku had an official assist position in Paris as his sister’s coaching associate.

READ: Momentum: Skylar Park finds her independence inside her household’s taekwondo legacy

That household legacy, and her personal Olympic expertise at Tokyo 2020, had Park coming into Paris 2024 with the objective of successful a gold medal. However competing on the Grand Palais on Day 13 was in contrast to something she’d been by means of earlier than.

“To start with, entering into this enviornment, it’s lovely, it’s large and there’s an enormous crowd, one thing that we’re not all the time tremendous used to in taekwondo,” she mentioned. “So I believe it took my breath away a little bit bit once I first stepped on the market, and I simply needed to shake off the nerves, however we have been in a position to get by means of that first match.”

Regardless of a self-described “rocky begin”, Park moved by means of the Spherical of 16 with a 2-0 (6-2, 4-3) win over Czechia’s Dominika Hronova. She felt good transferring into the quarterfinals in opposition to South Korea’s Kim Yujin, together with her father telling her earlier than the match: “win as a crew, lose as a crew”.

That knowledge loomed massive as Park could be upset by a rating of 2-0 (7-6, 9-5) within the quarterfinal, dashing her gold-medal goals. All was not misplaced, nonetheless; if the Korean athlete received her semifinal match, Park would get a possible shot at bronze by means of the repechage.

“I reconnected with my household within the stands after which I simply form of sat there, in my mother’s arms the entire time as we watched that semifinal go down,” mentioned Park. “Gratefully, Korea received and so I used to be in a position to get again within the repechage.”

READ: Park household able to compete within the ‘motherland’ at Santiago 2023

As soon as that was confirmed, Park was “full focus” on incomes that bronze medal.

Within the repechage, she defeated Hatice Kubra Ilgun of Turkey 2-0 (6-4, 3-2). Then, within the bronze-medal match, Park received 2-0 (0-0, 4-2) over Laeticis Aoun of Lebanon.

“It’s been a protracted day,” mentioned Park, of the 4 matches that despatched her from awe to doubt to disappointment to elation.

And although she completed the day on a beautiful excessive, she additionally remembers what her dad informed her on the day’s low level, after her sudden quarterfinal loss:

“Simply that he was happy with me.”