Skylar Park of Winnipeg, Manitoba is an Olympic bronze medalist. On Thursday, the 25-year-old placed third in the women’s 57 kilogram division.
Park, the fourth seed, defeated Laetitia Aoun of Lebanon in the bronze medal bout. Park won the first round despite the score being tied at zero, and then won the second round by a score of 4-2. A major turning point in the win came in the second set, when the officials clearly missed a three-point head kick by Park. Team Canada challenged the missed three points, won the challenge, and Park went on to win the match.
Park began the Olympic tournament with a 6-2, 4-3 win over Dominika Hronova of the Czech Republic in the first round. That was followed by a 7-6, 9-5 quarterfinal loss to Yu-jin Kim of South Korea. Park advanced to the Repechage when Kim upset the number one taekwondo athlete in the women’s 57 kilogram weight class, Zongshi Luo of China, 7-0, 1-7, 10-3. Park then beat Hatice Kubra Ilgun of Turkey 6-4, 3-2 in the Repechage before beating Aoun for bronze. Kim won the gold medal, Nahid Kiani of Iran won the silver medal, and Kimia Alizadeh of Bulgaria won the other bronze medal.
In the Olympic medal standings, Canada has now won 21 medals (six gold, five silver, and 10 bronze medals). That is 11th overall.
