Taekwondo at the 2012 Summer Olympics

Taekwondo competitions at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London was held from 8 August to 11 August at the ExCeL London. Competition was held in eight weight categories; four for men, and four for women.

Taekwondo
at the Games of the XXX Olympiad
VenueExCeL London
Dates8–11 August 2012
Competitors128 from 63 nations

Qualification

The Taekwondo competition at the 2012 Games included 128 athletes, 64 in each gender, 16 in each of the eight weight divisions. Each competing nations were allowed to enter a maximum of four competitors, two of each gender. Each nation would therefore be eligible to compete in a maximum of half the weight categories.[1]

Four places were reserved for Great Britain as host nation, and a further four was invitational as decided by the Tripartite Commission. The remaining 120 places were allocated through a qualification process, in which athletes won quota places for their respective nation.

If a nation which qualified through a Qualification Tournament relinquishes a quota place, it would be allocated to the nation of the next highest placed athlete in the respective weight category of that tournament as long as the addition of the place does not exceed the maximum quota for that nation.[2]

Schedule

Daily schedule
Date →Wed 8Thu 9Fri 10Sat 11
Men's58 kg68 kg80 kg+80 kg
Women's49 kg57 kg67 kg+67 kg

Medal summary

Due to the increasing controversies happened in the previous Olympics Taekwondo which led to speculations that this competition might be removed from the Olympic program, the World Taekwondo Federation introduced new electronic scoring system and instant video replays in anticipation to make the competition more transparent and fair. For the first time in Olympic Games Taekwondo, eight gold medals were awarded to eight different NOCs. Europe took the lead while South Korea lost its dominance in the previous Olympics and for the second time after 2004, did not finish top of the Taekwondo medal standings. Steven López, Alexandros Nikolaidis and Sarah Stevenson, the only three legends who participated in every previous three Olympics, were all eliminated in the preliminary round. Lee In Jong and Cha Dong-Min became the first two Korean Taekwondo practitioners who could not secure any medal in the Olympics Taekwondo history. Rohullah Nikpai of Afghanistan won a bronze medal for the second time. Anthony Obame became Gabon's first Olympic medalist.

Medal table

RankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1 Spain1203
2 China1113
3 South Korea1102
 Turkey1102
5 Great Britain1012
 Italy1012
7 Argentina1001
 Serbia1001
9 France0112
10 Gabon0101
 Iran0101
12 Russia0022
 United States0022
14 Afghanistan0011
 Chinese Taipei0011
 Colombia0011
 Croatia0011
 Cuba0011
 Germany0011
 Mexico0011
 Thailand0011
Totals (21 nations)881632

Men's events

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Flyweight (58 kg)
Joel González
 Spain
Lee Dae-hoon
 South Korea
Aleksey Denisenko
 Russia
Óscar Muñoz
 Colombia
Lightweight (68 kg)
Servet Tazegül
 Turkey
Mohammad Bagheri
 Iran
Terrence Jennings
 United States
Rohullah Nikpai
 Afghanistan
Middleweight (80 kg)
Sebastián Crismanich
 Argentina
Nicolás García
 Spain
Lutalo Muhammad
 Great Britain
Mauro Sarmiento
 Italy
Heavyweight (+80 kg)
Carlo Molfetta
 Italy
Anthony Obame
 Gabon
Robelis Despaigne
 Cuba
Liu Xiaobo
 China

Women's events

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Flyweight (49 kg)
Wu Jingyu
 China
Brigitte Yagüe
 Spain
Chanatip Sonkham
 Thailand
Lucija Zaninović
 Croatia
Lightweight (57 kg)
Jade Jones
 Great Britain
Hou Yuzhuo
 China
Marlène Harnois
 France
Tseng Li-cheng
 Chinese Taipei
Middleweight (67 kg)
Hwang Kyung-seon
 South Korea
Nur Tatar
 Turkey
Paige McPherson
 United States
Helena Fromm
 Germany
Heavyweight (+67 kg)
Milica Mandić
 Serbia
Anne-Caroline Graffe
 France
Anastasia Baryshnikova
 Russia
María Espinoza
 Mexico

Flag bearers

Eleven taekwondo athletes were flag bearers during the parade of nations:

  • Alexandros Nikolaidis, representing Greece. Alexandros won a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He previously had the honor to be the first torchbearer of the 2008 Summer Olympics torch relay. He also won a silver medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. He competes in the Men's +80kg (heavyweight).
  • Nesar Ahmad Bahave, representing Afghanistan. He was also the flag bearer for Afghanistan at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He has yet to medal at the Olympics, but he did win the silver at the World Championships in 2007. He competes in the Men's 80 kg (middleweight). On August0, he advanced from the preliminaries to the quarterfinals where he was defeated by Sebastián Crismanich of Argentina. Sebastián advanced to the gold medal match, so N advanced to the repechage bracket where he advanced again from the preliminary round to the bronze medal match against Mauro Sarmiento of Italy.
  • Arman Yeremyan, representing Armenia. He competes in the Men's 80 kg (middleweight). On August 10, he advanced from the preliminaries to the quarterfinals where he was defeated by Sebastián Crismanich of Argentina. Sebastián went on to win the gold medal.
  • Sorn Davin, representing Cambodia. She competes in the Women's +67 kg (heavyweight).
  • Seulki Kang, representing the Central African Republic. She competes in the Women's 49 kg (flyweight). On August 8, she was defeated in the preliminary round against Lucija Zaninović of Croatia.
  • Gabriel Mercedes, representing the Dominican Republic. He won a silver medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. He was a favorite to win his country's third medal. He competed in the Men's 58 kg (flyweight). Mercedes lasted one round and a half. A bad move shattered the meniscus and the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. He kept fighting with evident pain, before he limped away in tears.[3]
  • Nadin Dawani, representing Jordan. She competes in the Women's +67 kg (heavyweight).
  • Andrea Paoli, representing Lebanon. She competes in the Women's 57 kg (lightweight). On August 8, she advanced from the preliminary round to the quarterfinals by defeating Nidia Munoz of Cuba. In the quarterfinals, she lost against Tseng Li-Cheng of Taipei and did not advance to the bronze medal match.
  • María Espinoza, representing Mexico. María won a gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. She competes in the Women's +67 kg (heavyweight).
  • Wiam Dislam, representing Morocco. She competes in the Women's +67 kg (heavyweight).
  • Tameem Al-Kubati, representing Yemen. He competes in the Men's 58 kg (flyweight). On August 8, he advanced from the preliminaries to the quarterfinals by defeating Gabriel Mercedes of the Dominican Republic (8-3). In the quarterfinals, he was defeated by Óscar Muñoz of Colombia (2-14).

In addition, Sarah Stevenson, representing the host nation, Great Britain, took the athlete's oath at the opening ceremony.

Participating nations

A total of 128 athletes from 63 nations competed in taekwondo at the London Games. Only six nations brought four athletes: Egypt, Great Britain, Korea, Mexico, Russia, and the United States.

Controversy

British taekwondo practitioner Aaron Cook was involved in controversy relating to selection for the games. Although ranked number one in the world, Great Britain decided to send Lutalo Muhammad, ranked 59th. Cook appealed the omission claiming that he was overlooked because he stepped outside of Britain's training program and found his own coach, but the World Taekwondo Federation found that no rules were broken during the selection process.[4]

References

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