(Aug. 1, 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 fourth and last edition of a series that examines all eight Olympic weight categories, we shine a spotlight on the W+67kg and M+80kg.

 

Women +67kg

When Althea Laurin enters the field of play in the Grand Palais, the eyes of France will be upon her. The current world champion is popular she is a consistent medal winner in the Grand Prix series, and grabbed bronze in Tokyo. Whether she can convert it to gold in Paris remains to be seen but the home-town advantage will be on the side of the French player, and she has won her single Grand Prix gold in the city.

 

From across the Channel, Rebecca McGowan is the rising star of the Team GB Women’s Squad. McGowan won bronze and the 2022 Worlds in Guadalajara and silver at the 2023 Worlds in Baku, and like Laurin, has a weighty trove of Grand Prix medals.

 

Perhaps the most consistently dangerous competitor in this category is the highly experienced Da-bin Lee. Arguably the top female player on Team Korea, Lee, a star on the Grand Prix circuit, Lee managed silver in Tokyo. Expectations in Taekwondo’s homeland will be for an upgrade to that medal’s color.

 

Not to be overlooked is Turkiye’s veteran Nafia Kus.  In addition to her long leg length, she long experience in the game: There is no tourney that Kus, has not fought in, from the Universiade to the Olympics.

 

By contrast, Lorena Brandl of Germany has surged up and out of the youth talent pipeline. The up-and-comer, who is medalling in the Grand Prix series, will make her Olympic debut in Paris.

 

Men +80kg

This weight category is brimming with long-time veterans of the game, many of who have been fighting one another for over a decade.

 

However, no warrior in it is more famed that Cheick Salleh Cisse of Cote d’Ivoire. Having won Olympic gold with a spinning kick in the last second of play in Rio, he missed out on medals in Tokyo - but has never gone away. Last season he was on fine form, winning the World title in Baku in 2023, as well as two Grand Prix golds and the year’s “Best Male Athlete” award.

 

Croatia’s Ivan Sapina fought in Tokyo and won silver at the Baku Worlds in 2023.

Cuba’s Rafael Alba has played in the last two Olympic competitions and took bronze in Tokyo.

Mexico’s Carlos Sansores, who fought in Tokyo, won the Worlds in Guadalajara in 2022 and silver in Baku in 2023.

 

Niger’s Abdoul Issoufou, who won his country’s first Olympic silver medal in Rio and also fought in Tokyo, is one of the sport’s most recognizable players: He is unmissable due to his towering height and skill at “Tallkwondo.”

 

Yet another long termer in the category, and another Tallkwondo maestro is Norway’s Richard Andre Ordemann, while Uzbekistan’s Nikita Rafalovich is a long-serving warrior on the elite circuit.

 

However, there is new blood in the category, too.

 

Patrik Divkovic from Slovenia, a former Junior World Champions and Caden Cunningham, from Team GB, who has, in the last two seasons, been battling his way to medals in the Grand Prix. He is making his Olympic debut in Paris.