Skylar Park from Winnipeg, Manitoba, is an Olympic bronze medalist. On Thursday, the 25-year-old took third place in the women’s 57-kilogram class.
Park, the number four seed, defeated Laetitia Aoun of Lebanon in the bronze medal match. Park won the first round despite a tie, then won the second round 4-2. A key turning point in the victory came in the second set when the referees clearly missed a three-point headbutt by Park. Team Canada contested the missed three points, won the challenge, and Park won 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. She followed that with a 7-6, 9-5 loss in the quarterfinals to Yu-jin Kim of South Korea. Park made it to the repechage when Kim defeated the top 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 defeating Aoun to take 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 count, Canada has now won 21 medals (six gold, five silver and ten bronze), which ranks 11th overall.
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