Since taekwondo became an official event at the 2000 Olympic Games, the Chinese team has had gold medals in every session. At the Tokyo Olympics, the Chinese taekwondo team will have a record six participants, most of whom are world-class masters. Guan Jianmin, chairman of the Chinese Taekwondo Association and leader of the national team, said bluntly that the Chinese team went to the gold medal on this trip, "The taekwondo team must raise the national flag and play the national anthem for China at the Tokyo Olympic Games." ”
Hua Dan, the head of the Chinese taekwondo team, is the Olympic "double champion" Wu Jingyu. The 34-year-old "mom athlete" will be the first taekwondo woman to compete in four consecutive Olympic Games. On the eve of Chinese New Year's Eve 2019, Wu Jingyu returned to the arena and soon returned to the world's top ranks, winning silver at the World Championships in May and locking up an Olympic seat at the end of the year. After the comeback, Wu Jingyu trained hard as always, and her physical and technical state remained very ideal. In the national championship series fitness test in October last year, she overpowered a group of young players and ranked first in the women's 49 kg class.
Wu Jingyu took a photo at the 2019 World Championships.
Wu Jingyu's main opponents at the Tokyo Olympics, in addition to the world number one Thai player in this category, Umpadanagi who defeated himself in the final of the 2019 World Championships, and Serbian player Bogdanovic - Wu Jingyu has not yet tasted victory against the two after his comeback. However, Wu Jingyu has every opportunity to impact the highest podium.
In addition to Wu Jingyu, the Chinese taekwondo team also has a pair of "treasures" - Zhao Shuai and Zheng Shuyin. Five years ago, the couple reached the top in Rio, with the former winning the Olympic gold medal for The Chinese men's taemon for the first time. During the Tokyo Olympic cycle, both of them maintained excellent competitive form. Zhao Shuai, who was originally in the 58 kg class, fell into a trough after the upgrade, but he quickly adapted to the new arena, winning the men's 63 kg championship at the 2017 and 2019 World Championships, and winning the first men's 68 kg championship in the 2018 Grand Slam Finals.
Zhao Shuai won the 2017 World Championships.
And Zheng Shuyin has also experienced twists and turns in this cycle. In the final of the 2019 World Championships, she suffered an unfair penalty in the confrontation with the host Britain's Walkerton, regretting Juya. But the storm did not bring down Zheng Shuyin, but made her heart stronger. Just four months later, Zheng Shuyin defeated Walkerton at the Grand Prix Chiba Station and "by the way" won the Olympic "ticket". At present, Chinese girls rank second in the world ranking and are one of the favorites to win the Olympic championship.
Compared with the three Olympic champions, Zhang Mengyu and Zhou Lijun, two girls in their early twenties, although not very famous, have great hopes of winning the championship. Zhang Mengyu, in the women's 67 kg category, has taken one step at a time in five years, winning bronze at the 2017 World Championships and gold at the 2019 World Championships, becoming China's youngest taekwondo world champion. Zhou Lijun, who is in the women's 57 kg category, is also a rookie in the Tokyo Olympic cycle. From 2017 to 2019, she reached the final of the Grand Slam Finals consecutively and won consecutive gold medals in 2018 and 2019 "double kill" Rio Olympic champion Jones. In 2019, Zhou Lijun also won the third place in the World Championship. The two will also compete for gold in the first Olympic Games.
Zhang Mengyu (right) at the 2019 World Championships.
In addition, Sun Hongyi, a young player over 80 kg who "pressed the whistle" to get the Olympic "admission ticket" in the Asian qualification tournament of the Olympic Games in May this year, has also made great progress in the year of the postponement of the Olympic Games, and is currently in a hot state. Looking forward to the Olympic journey, Sun Hongyi bluntly said that he hopes to become a "dark horse" and add luster to China's taekwondo.
The image of this article is from the official website of the World Taekwondo Federation