South Korea gave taekwondo its start as an Olympic sport in 1988 in Seoul. Since then, athletes from all over the world have taken to the sport to exhibit their exceptional “way of kicking and punching” in a global spectacle. This year, the Grand Palais will host the 2024 Paris Olympics Taekwondo tournament from August 7th to 10th. One hundred and twenty eight participants are expected to battle for victory in an amazing show of kicks, spins, and leaps. The sport promises intense action with surprising turns along the road to Paris.

With Jordan’s 22-year-old silver medallist from the 2023 Asian Games emerging as a strong rival to Team USA, the mats have an interesting plot.

Road to Paris brings tough rivals on the mats

Jordanian athlete Zaid Kareem has been training hard to hone his skills ahead of this year’s Games. A training camp featuring elite taekwondo fighters from Jordan, Tunisia, Greece, and Kazakhstan were organized by the Fujairah Martial Arts Club, reported the National News. Through their global cooperation, these athletes were able to exchange tactics, methods, and friendships, which created the ideal environment for an exciting Olympic season.

Kareem’s rise to fame has not been a steady one, as he made it through a difficult field of opponents to win a silver medal in the men’s 68kg weight category in October. Kareem’s ability to create waves with his victory in the 2022 Grand Prix Final in Riyadh and his strong showing in the past two World Championships, reaching the quarter-finals, is noteworthy. He is no stranger to international podiums, having won a bronze at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires in 2018.

The distribution of the 128 quotas, equally divided between men and women, heightens competitiveness as the Paris Olympics get closer. The stage is set for an exciting matchup with the distribution based on host nation places, Universality places, WT Olympic Ranking, WT Grand Slam Champions Series, and Continental Qualification Tournaments. However, is CJ Nickolas, the American Taekwondo champion from last year, enough to single-handedly defend US pride against Jordan’s growing threat?

American taekwondo prospects

In January 2024, at the black belt exclusive U.S. Taekwondo Team Trials held in Charlotte, North Carolina, 22-year-old world silver medalist CJ Nickolas was among the athletes who qualified.

Nickolas’ remarkable global rating of No. 2 in the 80kg class supported his early qualifying as he became the first American taekwondo athlete to advance to this Summer Olympics. Additionally, he was the only top-20 American in the weight class.

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Nickolas broke a long-standing Olympic drought for male U.S. taekwondo competitors in May by winning silver in the 80kg class at the 2023 World Championships, in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Will the young Jordanian prodigy upend the current hierarchy, or will CJ Nickolas turn out to be the keystone that Team USA needs to reestablish its supremacy in taekwondo at the Olympics? Only time will tell.

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