Taekwondo World #1 Shell-shocked by Member of Refugee Olympic Team at the Tokyo Olympics 2020
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Taekwondo World #1 Shell-shocked by Member of Refugee Olympic Team at the Tokyo Olympics 2020
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Upsets continue to be the theme of the Tokyo Olympics 2020. In Taekwondo, we witnessed a double champion bow out at the hands of an unlikely opponent. Jade Jones of Great Britain lost to Kimia Alizadeh, a former Olympic bronze medalist.
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Taekwondo at the Tokyo Olympics 2020 witnesses an upset
Reuters
Tokyo 2020 Olympics – The Tokyo 2020 Olympics Opening Ceremony – Olympic Stadium, Tokyo, Japan – July 23, 2021. Fireworks explode during the opening ceremony REUTERS/Edgar Su TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
Representing the Refugee Olympic Team, Kimia Alizadeh became an instant legend by beating Jade Jones. The Brit had the opportunity to make three gold medals in a row, but her journey to the podium ended at the hands of the unlikeliest opponent.
Alizadeh, ranked #16 had previously beaten Jones in the 2015 World Championships to claim bronze. In Tokyo, she once again stifled her medal hopes and forces her to put all her eggs in the repechage basket. Needless to say, seeing an icon like Jade Jones competing in the repechage event is a sight to behold.
Unbelievable! 🤯
The double Olympic champion has been eliminated!
Jade Jones has been knocked out in the first round by Kimia Alizadeh Zenoorin, the bronze medallist in Rio, from the Olympic Refugee team.
More ⬇ #bbcolympics #Tokyo2020
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) July 25, 2021
With this win, Alizadeh moved on to the quarterfinals where she will face Lijun Zhou of China. If she beats the world #8, she will book a place in the semi-finals.
Few people know about Kimia Alizadeh’s background, especially since she represents a community and not a nation. However, she descends from Iran, from where she defected in 2020. She now lives in Germany, but does not represent them at the Olympics.
Who is Jade Jones?
Britain’s prime taekwondo machine, Jade Jones is Olympic royalty. Trained and thrived in a relatively obscure sport, Jones has somehow risen to the status of celebrity athlete. With incredible performances in taekwondo Grand Prix’s all across the world, the British Empire awarded her with the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.
Her exploits extended to the Olympics in 2012, when she won gold in front of a wild London crowd. The Welsh born superstar must’ve felt like a villain in London, but she prevailed and took home gold. The following Olympics, she repeated the feat at the Rio Olympics 2016 and etched her name in Olympic history.
Her celebrity status took her to winning BBC Wales’ Sports Personality of the Year in 2012 and is an OBE and MBE by the British Empire. With such accolades, Jones’ has established herself as one of the best in the sport.
