(July 30, 2024) – With the Paris 2024 Olympic Games underway and the days counting down to the Taekwondo Competition, the eyes of the fandom and the punditry are focusing on both up-and-comers and established star players.

 

In the third edition of a series that examines all eight Olympic weight categories, we shine a spotlight on the W-67kg and M-80kg

 

Women -67kg

Sarah Chaari of Belgium transitioned seamlessly from the junior to the senior division in 2022, winning the Junior Worlds in Sofia in the Worlds in Guadalajara in the same year. Since then, she has won max medals, and with her height and talent, is a serious contender in this, her first Olympics.

 

Veteran Ruth Gbagbi of Cote d’Ivoire is a superstar: Mingling physical power with spectacular kicks with expert footwork she has won pretty well everything – Worlds, Grand Prix – but one prize has eluded her. Having grabbed Olympic bronzes in both Rio and Tokyo, she will be going all-out for gold in Paris.

 

Team China’s Jie Song is a relative newcomer but is a soaring talent who has made her mark on the Grand Slam and the Grand Prix over the last two seasons.

 

The roof of the Grand Palais may explode when Magda Wiet-Henin stalks onto the mats: The hometown player and current World Champion is a serious French medal contender. And Paris has been kind to her: She grabbed gold at the Grand Prix in the city in 2023.

 

Hungarian Viviana Marton is a relative newcomer to the senior division, but what she may lack in experience, she makes up for in aggression. In Paris, her fierce fighting style is expected to light up the crowd.

 

Consistent Grand Prix medalist and Baku Worlds 2023 Silver Medalist Julyana Alsadeq will benefit from the expert coaching of top-team Jordan, in this, her second Olympics after Tokyo 2020.

 

Men -80kg

Egyptian veteran Seif Eissa is a master of ‘Tallkwondo’ who will, in Paris, be hoping to upgrade the bronze he won in Tokyo 2020.

 

Fighting under the flag of the Olympic Refugee Team in Paris is Farzad Mansouri. The Afghan native was his country’s flag bearer in Tokyo 2020.

 

Mehran Barkhordari hails from the always-dangerous Team Iran. A leading member of the new generation, he has made a serious impact on the Grand Prix series since 2023.

 

Arguably the man to beat in this category is Italy’s Simone Alessio. After participating in Tokyo, he has been storming through the game. The current world champ, he was named “Male Athlete of the Year” in 2022, and owns a crate full of Grand Prix medals.

 

Jordanian Saleh Elsharabaty is another player to watch. A silver medalist from Tokyo and a double Grand Prix gold medalist, he is prodigious physical talent and a spectacular fighter.

 

Team Korea’s Geon-woo Seo is fighting in his first Olympics. He was catapulted from the sub-71 player group into the elite ranks via the 2022 Grand Prix Challenge, and has since established his place in the series with two golds.

 

Ismael Coulibaly of Mali, fighting in his second Olympics after Rio 2016, is a long-time veteran and consistent battler aiming to return home with a medal.

 

A double silver medalist at the Worlds, Team USA’s CJ Nickolas. One of the most extraordinary talents in the game, he boasts superhuman balance and the kind of cinematic kicks that brings a stadium to its feet.