Olympic Games Paris 2024

Refugee Athlete Kimia Alizadeh secures Olympic taekwondo quota at the European Qualification Tournament for Paris 2024

By Evelyn Watta
3 min|
IOC Olympic Refugee Athlete Kimia Alizadeh secures Olympic quota at the European Qualification Tournament for Paris 2024.

Picture by PA Wire/PA Images

Kimia Alizadeh became the first ever Refugee Athlete to secure a qualification berth for an Olympics taekwondo.

Alizadeh, a bronze medallist from the Rio 2016 Games where she represented Iran, is set to compete in her third Olympics after booking her quota spot at the European Qualification Tournament for Paris 2024 Olympics in Sofia, live on Olympic Channel.

The IOC Refugee Athlete Scholarship holder won her semi-final against Inese Tarvida of Latvia in the women’s -57kg on Saturday 9th March to claim the berth.

Tokyo Olympic silver medallist Tatiana Minina, an Individual Neutral Athlete, also earned a quota in the same weight class.

A total of 16 quotas were confirmed from the event, including World champion Marko Golubic.

Edi Hrnic booked Denmark’s first Olympic quota in taekwondo in 20 years in the men's -80kg, and so did the other finalist in the class, neutral athlete Maksim Khramtcov.

The 20-year-old reigning European Games champion Hrnic was delighted to have secured a quota for Denmark, who haven’t qualified a taekwondoka since Athens 2004.

“I have always said that it was my goal to get to the Olympics, but it is a partial goal in relation to the overall goal, which is to come home with gold. If I can succeed in this, I can damn well bring home that Olympic gold medal,” he said in an interview with Berlingske.dk.

Top seeded Norwegian Richard Ordemann is also hoping to compete in his second consecutive Olympic Games after securing his place in a men’s +80kg, that also had Slovenia’s Patrick Divkovic making the final.

Another man looking to fight on the Olympic mat again will be Ireland’s Jack Woolley who reached the final of the men’s -58kg on Sunday, 10 March, which had the bonus of earning him a quota spot. Georgii Gurtsiev also finished the competition unbeaten in the same weight class.

Croatia’s Golubic, the reigning world gold medallist, was among the eight athletes who booked slots on the final day in Bulgaria.

As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.

Quotas for Paris 2024 from the 2024 European Taekwondo Qualification Tournament on 9 and 10 March, 2024 in Sofia Bulgaria

The two-day Olympic Qualifying Tournament was streamed live exclusively on Olympic Channel via Olympics.com and the official Olympics app for mobile devices.You can watch the replays here.

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