‘Winning is all the sweeter with your bestie,’ says Jade Jones of GB taekwondo teammate Bianca Cook
With four Olympic medals between them, Great Britain’s taekwondo trailblazers have a Paris 2024 swansong in mind.
Taekwondo
Celebrity magazine Hello profiled the wedding of British three-time taekwondo world champion Bianca Cook, nee, Walkden in October 2022, detailing her marriage to her childhood sweetheart.
That childhood sweetheart? One Aaron Cook, a two-time world bronze medallist and three-time European champion in the sport.
The bridesmaid? Two-time Olympic champion, Jade Jones, joined by her boyfriend, former athlete and now GB Taekwondo coach, Jordan Gayle.
Any party crashers at this event would have picked the wrong wedding.
Cook and Jones are continuing their Olympic journey with their next competition in the build-up to Paris 2024, the first Grand Prix Series of the year in Roma from 9-11 June.
The vibes should be good – Italy is where the wedding took place eight months ago.
Bianca Cook and Jade Jones eye Paris 2024 swansong
Good vibes are very much a feature of the relationship between the pair that has seen them accumulate four Olympic medals between them. Two gold for Jones in 57kg class, including a home win at London 2012, and two bronze for Walkden in +67kg, from Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.
But both came away disappointed from the last Games.
Jones arrived in Japan as the reigning world champion, favourite to take a third consecutive Olympic title. However, the headhunter, nicknamed for a move she’s made her own, was beaten in her first bout by Refugee Team athlete Kimia Alizadeh.
The Welsh athlete cited anxiety borne of the covid-19 pandemic lockdown, and missing the support in the stands from her family as reasons she wasn’t mentally ready for the fight.
“Should've, would've, could've!' Is how I feel..,” posted Jones afterwards. “Wish so bad I had a do over button and I could do yesterday again but I don’t, which is the most frustrating thing... I would of changed a lot of things especially my mindset going into it. But it’s done and life moves on!”
Bianca, meanwhile, missed out on the chance to improve on her bronze medal from Brazil after suffering a last-gasp defeat to Republic of Korea's Lee Dabin in the semi-final.
The twosome was disappointed but knew they had done everything they could to prepare for the Games, despite the challenges posed by the pandemic.
The pair had lived together since 2010 along with Aaron, and come lockdown, the small garage metamorphosised into a taekwondo practice area. With help from their partners, practice could continue.
"I was very lucky to have Bianca and Jordan and Aaron as well to keep us training,” Jones told a BBC documentary. "We had kind of a little training camp going downstairs – I changed my garage into a taekwondo gym."
Olympic fire still burns for Bianca Cook and Jade Jones
The besties feel there is unfinished Olympic business with both looking to Paris for one last hurrah but as they know only too well, the journey to even get there will be hard enough.
In March, the pair won gold at the Bulgaria Open, securing their first titles of 2023. The world championships in Azerbaijan in May though, saw mixed results with Bianca winning bronze and Jones reaching the quarter-finals.
The European Games in Krakow, Poland (21 June 21 to 2 July) provides the next opportunity not only for confidence-boosting results but qualification ranking points toward Paris 2024, too.
“We’ve been through all the highs and lows of the sport together and now we’re going through life moments as well," posted Bianca who describes her friend as like a sister.
“I can’t wait for her to get married, and we’ll probably have kids at the same time because we’re on the same journey. We are literally joined at the hip.”
Jones reciprocated: “Lived, trained, eat, won together for 12 years 👀, that is basically a marriage 😂. Let’s smash up the next chapter.”
After all, winning is all the sweeter with your bestie.