Winnipeg’s Skylar Park is coming home as an Olympic medallist.
The 25-year-old took the long way to the podium Thursday, winning her opening match in the morning, but dropping her quarterfinal in the afternoon 2-0 to Kim Yujin of South Korea.
Park then got some help from Kim, who advanced to the semi-final, allowing the Winnipegger to face and defeat Turkey’s Hatice Kubra Ilgan 2-0 in the repechage to reach one of the two bronze-medal matches in Olympic taekwondo.
Almost 12 hours after her first match of the day, she became the third Canadian ever to win a taekwondo medal at the Olympic Games by beating Lebanon’s Laetitia Aoun 2-0 to claim a bronze medal.
“I’m tired, but I think the excitement and the joy and the gratitude is just keeping me going,” she said a day after her marathon to the podium.
Winnipeg’s Skylar Park defeated Lebanon’s Laetitia Aoun 2-0 to claim taekwondo bronze in the 57kg division at Paris 2024.
“I’m super excited. I think it’s finally sinking in that I’m an Olympic medallist, and it feels good.”
Park lost her quarterfinal match in her Olympic debut three years ago in Tokyo and didn’t have a repechage to get back in the medal hunt.
This time around, she came into the Games with a “completely different perspective.”
“I’ve grown and learned so much since Tokyo, and so I had a very new perspective and new take on the whole situation,” she said.
After Park won, she took a lap around the mats with the Canadian flag and embraced her father, Jae, who is also her coach.
“I don’t think there was many words said,” Park said.
“He said he was proud of me. We’ve gone through a lot over the past eight months and so to be on the mats, and especially with winning a bronze medal, was very special for all of us.”
Taekwondo is a family affair for the Parks. The extended family holds 16 black belts.
Last year, Jae coached Park and her two younger brothers — Tae-Ku and Braven — at the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile.
Tae-Ku was his sister’s training partner in Tokyo and again in Paris, but Braven later stepped in when Tae-Ku was nursing an injury before the Games.
Park said the goal is for all three siblings to one day compete on the Olympic stage.
“They’ve sacrificed so much to help me get to this point and especially leading up to these Games to prepare,” Park said. “They’ve got hit way too many times and the Games are over so they said it’s time for them to hit me back a few times.
“There’s no more leeway for me in training, but [I’m] forever grateful for them.”
Park is looking forward to celebrating with friends, family and the taekwondo community at some point once she returns to Winnipeg.
“I think they’re going to be so excited and I hope to always inspire the next generation,” she said.
“But I think working with all the athletes at our home taekwondo academy, the Tae Ryong Park Academy, I think the athletes inspire me as well.
“There’s a give and take there.… I’m so excited to go back and share it with my family there at the gym who’ve supported me through this whole journey and who’ve been with me from the very beginning.”