Taekwondo At The 2008 Summer Olympics

The event of Taekwondo competitions at the 2008 Summer Olympics is held in Beijing. It was on the duration of August 20 to August 23 at the Beijing Science and Technology University Gymnasium. The event consists of various athletes, who are 128 Taekwondo practitioners, consisting 64 men and 64 women. These athletes competed in 8 events, where for the first time ever, two bronze medals were awarded per event.

The highlight of the 2008 Summer Olympics are the top 3 Men Taekwondo medalists, which are: Guillermo Perez from Mexico, Yulis Gabriel Mercedes from Dominica Republic, and Mu-Yen Chu from Taipei. The top 3 Women Taekwondo medalists are: Jingyu Wu from China, Buttree Puedpong from Thailand, and Dalia Contreras Rivero from Venezuela.

Competition format

The taekwondo competition at the Olympic Games consists of a single elimination tournament. A change has been made as the IOC decided to award two bronze medals in the Beijing 2008 Olympics. However, the repechage system will be maintained and the difference will be that both winners of the respective repechage matches will receive a bronze medal.

Taekwondo competitions should be held between contestants of the same gender and weight division. Taekwondo competition involves a mat of 8 meters squared serves as the competitive arena. Taekwondo fights go three rounds of two minutes each, with a one-minute break in between. Each fighter aims to strike or score points by striking their rival in the body or head. Kicks to the torso and head are permitted, whereas punches are only allowed to the body. However, a target below the waist is not allowed.

Penalties are a way for fighters to lose points. These can be caused by things like: A punch in the face; Using the knee to attack; Attacking the area below the waistline; Stepping both feet out of the ring; Turning away from your adversary; Faking illness.
The fighter who strikes down their opponent or scores the most points at the end of the three rounds wins the match. If the fight ends in a tie, a golden point round is held, with the combatant who scores the first point considered the winner.

Qualification

Medal summary

South Korea ranks first place in this competition by winning 4 gold medals in the 4 events they participated. Hadi Saei was a repeated champion, alongside Steven López, who were the only 2 Taekwondo practitioners that won medals in a streak of 3 Olympics. Next on the winning board were Chu Mu-Yen and Alexandros Nikolaidis, who also won a medal for the second time. History was made when Rohullah Nikpai became the first Afghan Olympics medalist during this event. Conclusively, Sarah Stevenson lastly won a medal in her third Olympics appearance, eliminating two-time gold medalist Chen Zhong in an unprecedented result overturn.

Men's events

Women's events

Medal table

Flagbearers

There are a large number of Taekwondo practitioners who took the pride of carrying their nation's flag in the ceremony, which are the following:
Daba Modibo Keita of Mali, Deepak Bista of Nepal, Sheikha Maitha Al Maktoum of United Arab Emirates, Nesar Ahmad Bahave of Afghanistan, Miguel Ferrera of Honduras & Bineta Diedhiou of Senegal

Incident

Amongst many controversies in the 2008 Summer Olympics, the terrorist incident is one of them. On 10 April 2008, China claims to have disrupted a terror plot to kidnap athletes, journalists, and tourists during the August Olympics in Beijing by Uyghur separatists. Reports have said that these terrorists were planning suicide bombings and kidnapping activities to destroy the Olympics. In the northwestern Xinjiang province, the security ministry reported 35 arrests and bombs confiscated in recent weeks. Police uncovered another conspiracy based in Xinjiang to disrupt the Games in January after the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Chinese officials had already turned Beijing into a massive fortress in preparation for the attack. Surface-to-air missiles fire at the skies above the Olympic venues. On light poles, surveillance cameras scan the walkways. Thousands of automobiles and trucks are searched by police as they enter the city.
ordinary citizens have been urged to help their native land: Thousands of middle-aged and elderly locals, many of whom were dressed in red armbands evocative of the ardent Red Guard youngsters of decades ago, were patrolling the neighborhoods, looking for even the tiniest act or person.

Beijing's latest security measures include increased inspection of Muslim gathering spots. Following the Kunming bombs in late July, police officers were observed seated across from a mosque in Beijing's Russian neighbourhood. After numerous inspections from authorities citing health issues, the proprietor of the Xinjiang Kashgar Restaurant near the major Olympic site claimed he closed down Tuesday. Many other Muslim eateries in the area, he said, had attracted similar inspections. The owner, an Uighur, asked not to be named for fear of being persecuted even more by the government.

Controversies

Result overturning

On August 23, the quarterfinal match in the Women's +67 kg between Sarah Stevenson of Great Britain and China's Chen Zhong, the defending gold medalist from Sydney and Athens, was plagued with controversy. Chen Zhong had led 1-0 through most of the match. However, 4 seconds before the end, Stevenson landed a clear strike to the face of her opponent. Nevertheless, only half the judges recorded the hit and thus was not registered, dashing Stevenson's Olympic hopes of gaining her the two points that would have secured her a quick victory. Stevenson's coach was seen to be agitated, which lead the coach to protest to the referee and judges, but initially, Zhong was awarded the match. The British team protested for over an hour based on the clear video footage, it was seen that there was a mishap of the strike to the face, unprecedently in the sport of Taekwondo, much to the crowd's dislike, the judges' decision was repealed. In the course of time, it was Stevenson who went through to the semi-finals against the Mexican María del Rosario Espinoza. Espinoza, however, secured a clear victory over the unprepared Stevenson and went on to win gold, whilst Stevenson took bronze in the bronze medal match against the Egyptian Noha Abd Rabo.

On announcing the change of result in the quarter-final, the tournament director said:

Match-fixing allegations

Canadian medal hopeful, Ivett Gonda, lost 2–0 to Sweden's Hanna Zajc on the first day of the competition despite Ivett's visible domination of the match. Her coach speculated that it is possible that the judge's scoring machines were possibly broken. He also speculated that another reason could be that the Chinese judge wanted to prevent Gonda from facing the Chinese competitor in the next round (who later easily beat Zajc on her way to the medal).

A protest was sent out and was subsequently denied. Many coaches, not only the Canadian coach, were shocked at the loss.

Referee assault

The bronze medal match in the men's 80+ kg class saw the gold medallist from Sydney 2000, Ángel Matos

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