North Macedonian Miljana Reljikj (left) against Lebanese Laetitia Aoun (right) in action during the quarterfinals of the women’s -57kg taekwondo Olympic tournament on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024, at the Grand Palais in Paris. (Credit: David Gray/AFP)
Lebanon's day of glory was almost within reach. Forty-four years after Hassan Bechara won bronze in Greco-Roman wrestling at the Moscow Games, Laetitia Aoun came achingly close to securing a medal of the same metal this Thursday in the women’s Olympic taekwondo tournament in the under-57 kg category.
Competing under the glass roof of the Grand Palais in Paris, transformed into a "dojang" (a taekwondo court in Korean) for the occasion, the 23-year-old lost the bronze medal match to Canada's Skylar Park, who defeated the Lebanese fighter in in straight sets (0-0, 4-2).
Canada's Skylar Park (L) competes against Lebanon's Laetitia Aoun in the taekwondo women's -57kg bronze medal bout of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Grand Palais in Paris on August 8, 2024. (Credit: David Gray/AFP)
After a scoreless first round (0-0), the advantage was awarded to the Canadian for landing more chest hits, which are counted electronically. In the second round, Laetitia Aoun struggled to respond with the same spontaneity she had shown earlier in the day. Visibly tense and physically drained, she conceded a head kick that gave her Canadian opponent the decisive edge to secure the bronze medal.
Earlier in the day, Aoun delivered an impressive performance, defeating Taiwan's Lo Chia-Ling in the round of 16 (4-2, 3-2) and then overcoming North Macedonia’s Miljana Reljikj in the quarterfinals (9-8, 6-6). However, she fell short in the semifinals against world No. 2, Iran’s Nahid Kiyanichandeh (10-3, 9-0).
Laetitia Aoun celebrating her victory over northern Macedonian Miljana Reljikj in the quarter-finals of the Paris-2024 women's -57kg Olympic taekwondo tournament, Thursday August 8 at the Grand Palais. (Credit: Nael Chahine/OLJ)
As the last chance for a medal in the Lebanese delegation at the Paris 2024 Games, Aoun, a member of the Mont La Salle club (Ain Saadeh, Metn), was within reach of securing Lebanon’s fifth Olympic medal and becoming the first Lebanese female athlete to achieve such a feat. While this dream remains unfulfilled for now, all eyes are on Los Angeles in four years’ time.
The objective of a Taekwondo fight
If Aoun were to win a medal in Paris, a feat no Lebanese athlete has achieved since 1980 when Hassan Bechara won bronze in Greco-Roman wrestling (super heavyweight category) in Moscow, she would become the first Lebanese woman to medal at the Olympics.
Lebanon's three other Olympic medals were won by Zakaria Chehab and Khalil Taha, who took silver (bantamweight) and bronze (welterweight), respectively, in Greco-Roman wrestling at the 1952 Helsinki Games. Twenty years later, Mohammed Trabulsi claimed silver in weightlifting (middleweight category) at the 1972 Munich Games.
The objective in taekwondo is to strike your opponent’s chest or head using your feet or fists. Matches are contested over three rounds, each lasting two minutes. A punch to the body scores one point, while a kick to the same area earns two points. If the kick lands on the head, three points are awarded, as was the case in Aoun's fight. A reverse kick to the chest scores four points, while the same kick to the head is worth five.
Since qualifying on March 17 after winning the Asian zone qualifying tournament in China, Aoun carries the heavy responsibility of keeping Lebanon's last medal hope alive in these Olympics, following the successive eliminations of her eight compatriots who represented Lebanon in Paris.
Laetitia Aoun is the second Lebanese athlete to compete at the prestigious Grand Palais, which has become the home of taekwondo after a week of fencing events. Earlier, Lebanese fencer Philippe Wakim competed in individual foil but was eliminated in the first round by Taiwan's Chen Yi-tung, with a score of 15-13.
Taekwondo, a Korean martial art, became part of the official Olympic program at the Sydney Games in 2000. Aoun is the third Lebanese woman to secure a direct qualification for Paris 2024, and the second taekwondo athlete to represent Lebanon in this discipline, following Andrea Paoli's participation in the London Games twelve years ago.
This article originally appeared in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.
