Park Tae-joon (taekwondo)

This article is about the taekwondo athlete. For the businessman, see Park Tae-joon.

Park Tae-joon (Korean: 박태준; born 6 June 2004) is a South Korean taekwondo athlete.^[1][2] He won a gold medal in his World Taekwondo Championships debut in the 2023 World Taekwondo Championships held in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Park Tae-joon

Park at the 2024 Summer Olympics
Personal information
Nationality	South Korea
Born	(2004-06-06) 6 June 2004 (age 21) Ulsan, South Korea
Height	180 cm (5 ft 11 in)
Sport
Sport	Taekwondo
Event(s)	54 kg, 58 kg
University team	Kyung Hee University
Medal record Men's taekwondo Representing  South Korea Olympic Games 2024 Paris 58 kg World Championships 2023 Baku 54 kg Grand Prix 2022 Manchester 58 kg 2023 Taiyuan 58 kg Asian Championships 2022 Chuncheon 54 kg 2024 Da Nang 54 kg Asian Junior Championships 2019 Amman 45 kg
Updated on 2 April 2024

Park participated in the 2024 Summer Olympics held in Paris, France, where he won the gold medal in the men's flyweight (-58 kg) event.^{[3][4][unreliable source?]}

In the most recent 2024 March World Taekwondo ranking, Park is ranked 1st in the men's -54 kg (finweight) World Kyorugi Category, and is ranked 5th in the men's -58 kg (flyweight) Olympic Kyorugi Category.^[3][5]

Career

Cadet

In 2016, Park won a gold medal at the Russian Open Tournament in the Cadet Male flyweight (-37 kg) event.^[6]

Junior

In 2019, Park won a gold medal at the Asian Junior Championships in the Juniors Male finweight (-45 kg) event.^[7] Wuhoo

Senior

In 2022, Park won his first gold medal in the Senior category at the 2022 Asian Taekwondo Championships in the Men's finweight (-54 kg) event. He also won gold medals that year at the Korea Taekwondo Open Tournament held in Chuncheon, in the men's finweight (-54 kg) event, and at the 2022 World Taekwondo Grand Prix held in Manchester, in the men's flyweight (-58 kg) event.

In February 2023, Park won a gold medal in the Canada Taekwondo Open Tournament held in Vancouver, in the men's flyweight (-58 kg) event.^[8] In March, he won a gold medal at the US Taekwondo Open Tournament held in Las Vegas, in the men's flyweight (-58 kg) event.^[9] He later won a gold medal at the 2023 World Taekwondo Championships in June, his first senior category World Championships in the men's finweight (-54 kg) event.^[10] He was given the men's most valuable player award, as a recognition of his outstanding performance during the Championships.^[11]

In October 2023, Park participated in Series 3 of the Grand Prix Series and won a bronze medal after losing a fight of 2-1 against Mohamed Khalil Jendoubi. In February 2024, he won a gold medal in the 2024 Paris Olympics dispatch national team selection, thus qualifying to compete in the Olympics in the men's flyweight (-58 kg) event.^[12] He defeated a previous Olympic medalist, Jang Jun, 2-0 to qualify.^{[13][unreliable source?]}

During the 2024 Summer Olympics, Park won a gold medal in the men's 58 kg category. He defeated Mohamed Khalil Jendoubi of Tunisia and Gashim Magomedov of Azerbaijan.^[3] His win has been described as an upswing for South Korea, as it did not win any Taekwondo gold medals while participating in the 2020 Summer Olympics.^[14][15]