GBT
Great Britain's taekwondo team reflect on an incredible experience at the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Medal Winners
• Amy Truesdale (K44 +65kg) – Gold
• Matt Bush (K44 +80kg) – Gold
• Caden Cunningham (+80kg) – Silver
GB Team:
(Paralympic)
• Beth Munro
• Amy Truesdale
• Matt Bush
(Olympic)
• Jade Jones
• Rebecca McGowan
• Caden Cunningham
• Bradly Sinden
Seven GB Taekwondo athletes were selected to represent Team GB and Paralympics GB at the Games. The team’s performance highlighted the true nature of sport, delivering everything from dominant medal winning performances, the nervous tension of marginal wins and losses, moments of absolute elation, and the raw emotions of falling short. The team came away from the Games with one Silver and two Gold medals, having captured the imagination of new fans and earned respect of their performance both on and off the mat. In recognition, Matt Bush was selected to carry the GB flag at the Paralympic closing ceremony to bring Paris 2024 to a close.
In the Olympic competition:
• Caden Cunning, in his first Games, won the SILVER medal delivering dominant performances throughout, including a win against Rio 2016 Olympic Champion Cheik Sallah Cisse in the semi-final. Caden took the final fight into the third round before acknowledging the outcome and congratulating his opponent Iran’s Arian Salimi.
• Also in her first Games, Rebecca McGowan came agonisingly close to taking the Bronze medal having successfully won her repechage against Ivory Coast athlete Astan Bathily.
• In the -68kg category, Bradly Sinden dominated the early rounds and looked on track for Gold before being forced to withdraw from the competition due to injury.
• Two-time Olympic Champion, Jade Jones did not progress through the rounds, acknowledging that the weight of expectation affected her performance
In the Paralympic competition:
• Amy Truesdale became Paralympic Champion, winning the GOLD after delivering outstanding performances through the day including a win in the final against Uzbek, Guljonoy Naimova. She adds the Paralympic title to her Bronze medal from Tokyo and 3 World Championship titles and becomes the first ever to hold Paralympic, World and European Champion titles at the same time.
• After missing out on Tokyo 2020 due to injury, Matt Bush delivered with confidence to become heavyweight Paralympic Champion, winning the GOLD without conceding a point to Neutral Paralympic Athlete Aliaskhab Ramazanov. Matt becomes GB Taekwondo’s first male Gold medallist at a Games.
• After winning the silver medal in Tokyo, it was not to be for Beth Munro who bowed out of the Paralympic competition in the repechage against Lisa Kjaer of Denmark.
• As the only team to win more than one Gold medal, Great Britain topped the Paralympic Games Taekwondo medal table.
Paris 2024 Taekwondo was hosted in the spectacular Grand Palais, with athletes performing in front of 8000 supporters, friends and family. With dynamic performances from a truly global field, including Refugee Team athletes in the Olympic and Paralympic classes (including GB Taekwondo athlete Farzad Mansouri), the Paris Games did not fail to deliver extraordinary sporting moments.
And finally, merci! To all the friends, family and supporters that joined us at the Grand Palais and cheered on the team, you have well and truly motivated us to go and dominate at the LA Games!
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