Hungary's Viviana Marton, left, celebrates after winning the gold medal in a women's 67kg Taekwondo final at the Grand Palais, in Paris, on Aug. 9.Andrew Medichini/The Associated Press
Teenager Viviana Marton capped a day of upsets with gold medal in the women’s taekwondo welterweight division at the Paris Games on Friday, winning Hungary’s first Olympic medal in the sport.
Another little-known fighter, Tunisia’s Firas Katoussi, later won gold in the men’s welterweight by defeating Iran’s Mehran Barkhordari 4-2 5-1.
Marton dominated Serbia’s Aleksandra Perisic 7-1 4-2 in the women’s under 67kg final at the Grand Palais, clinching victory with a kick to the body.
“I can’t believe it right now, but I feel that all the hard work makes this medal,” she said.
“It’s very important for me and for my country, for Hungary, because it’s the first medal in taekwondo. I hope there’ll be more taekwondo players, girls and boys.”
The 18-year-old reached the title-decider after having ousted twice Olympic bronze medalist Ruth Gbagbi from Ivory Coast and Belgium’s 2022 world champion Sarah Chaari, who later won bronze.
In testament to the sport’s unpredictability, three top contenders failed to advance to the finals.
In the men’s, America’s top gold medal hope CJ Nickolas, who won silver at the world championships last year, bowed out to Katoussi in a close semi-final won in the last minute by the Tunisian fighter with a kick to the body.
Nickolas’ aggressive and persistent combat style produced some of the most spectacular bouts, notably against Italy’s 2022 world champion Simone Alessio, who defeated him in the final match for bronze. Denmark’s Edi Hrnic was the second bronze medal winner.
The energized American fighter danced onto the mat for his first contest with a patched jacket with his name on the back draped over his shoulders.
“I put the raw version of myself out there for everybody to see. And it was a massive risk and I failed,” Nickolas said.
“I gotta do some soul searching to figure out what that means. (People) don’t want to just see crazy kicks. They want to see me win. And I need to figure out how I win. How do I turn these into wins?”
Simone later lost to Olympic debutant Barkhordari in the quarter-finals.
The Iranian fighter clinched victory by landing a kick to the body in the last seconds of the deciding round.
French women’s world champion Magda Wet-Henin’s gold medal hopes were crushed in the round of 16 by another teenager, 18-year-old American fighter Kristina Teachout, who also earned a bronze.
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