M. Jelic Olympic Games Tokyo 2020

Olympic gold was decided by a razor-thin margin of 24-21 between Croatia’s M. Jelic and Britain’s Lauren Williams in the Makuhari Messe Hall.

Both players came out swinging, but the Croat’s counterattacks helped him even the score in the opening round (5-4), and then again in the second (10-10). Williams led 18-13 with 45 seconds remaining in the decisive game.

M. Jelic Olympic Games Tokyo 2020

M. Jelic was exhausted, but with 26 seconds left, he closed the gap to within three points of Williams. With 11 seconds remaining, though, the Croat tied the match with a head shot of his own, and he went on to win gold by a score of 24-21.

Williams, who had to live in a caravan with her mom for two years so she could practise with the national team, said, “Not enough.” As in, “I could have had her…. I feel like I gave it my best today, and a silver medal isn’t too shabby a reward.

At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, M. Jelic became the first Croatian taekwondo athlete to win an Olympic gold medal.

She accomplished this after appearing doomed to lose the women’s under-67 kilogramme final to Lauren Williams of the United Kingdom at the Makuhari Messe but ultimately coming out on top.

The gold medal favourite, Ivorian bronze medalist Ruth Gbagbi, had been eliminated by M. Jelic opponent with only 13 seconds left.

M. Jelic Took Home the Gold

Williams went down to the mat after the 23-year-old Croat struck a head kick, and then another. In the final three seconds, the British man pushed forward hopelessly, hoping to mount a comeback. The match ended with a score of 25-22, and M. Jelic took home the gold.

The Croat’s performance was the clearest evidence yet that she had internalised a key lesson from 2016.

After going scoreless through the first two rounds of the 67 kilogramme final against South Korea’s Kim Jan-Di at the first of three World Taekwondo Grand Prix series meetings in 2019, M. Jelic turned a silver medal into gold in the final 10 seconds by landing a spinning back kick followed by a front kick to win 8-3.

Last Words

It’s not finished until the ref says so,” M. Jelic added.

At the World Championships two weeks prior to her epiphany in Rome, M. Jelic had lost to Milena Titoneli of Brazil by a single point in the round of 16.  Thanks for reading our article M. Jelic Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.