Athletes Making It Big In Taekwondo, Judo and Karate at Tokyo Olympics

It has been two days since Tokyo Olympics 2020 started and all eyes are on the combat sports competitions among men and women that have given the fans exciting matchups to look forward to. Iranian refugee Kimia Alizadeh is in the limelight after she narrowly missed out on an Olympic medal in taekwondo. She won her first three taekwondo bouts but lost the next two. This made her finish fourth for the Refugee Olympic Team.

On the other hand, Jordanian taekwondo star Saleh Elsharabaty has been awarded the silver medal. Despite losing the final fight, Elsharabaty is happy to see Russia’s Maksim Khramtcov don the gold medal around his neck.

“[Khramtcov]is so strong. I’ve trained with him a lot in Jordan; we are like brothers,” the 22-year-old Jordanian said. “I am happy for him and I am happy with the silver this time. In (the Paris Games in 2024) I want the gold.”

In Judo, Japan’s Shohei Ono continued his dominance. He won the gold medal in the men’s 73 kg weight category after overwhelming Lasha Shavdatuashvili in the final. The veteran Japanese judoka hasn’t lost since 2015.

In the women’s under-57 kilogram category, Canadian judoka Jessica Klimkait won bronze.
Anastasija Zolotic, 18, ran riot at the Tokyo 2020 to win the gold medal in the taekwondo featherweight division. Speaking to media after her historic win, she said:

“I worked my butt off for it, and I hope I can help taekwondo get as popular as it can be in the U.S. I think I can, and hopefully in 2024, if I make it over to Paris, win another gold medal and just keep grinding to LA, by then taekwondo will be all over the map.”

Wrestling and Karate will commence on August 1 and August 5, respectively.