Bonus Episode 2 - 2021 Year Review

 Year review 2021. Covid and Taekwondo. Training and Events

 In this second bonus episode, Coaches César Valentim and Peter Nestler review 2021. How was training and competing during the pandemic. The first Ranked Events, new competition formats, the Olympic Qualification Tournaments and of course, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics with all its surprises and challenges.

Listen to this year review, the performance analysis from the medalists at the Olympic Games and some opinions on the new competitions out there!

 This podcast is supported by Hawkin Dynamics! 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Have you been looking for a Teon do podcast with qualified people who know what they're talking about, who help you keep up with everything going on in the Teon do world? Well, you found it. This is the Teon do podcast. Teon do news competitions in a of the events training in sports science, keeping the fans, coaches and high performance athletes up to date with the latest news and trends on Olympic TaeKwonDo. Let's do this. This is the TaeKwonDo podcast. And now your host coach, Cesar Valenti team and Peter Nestle.

Speaker 2: 0:41

Hello and welcome to the second episode of the Teon do podcast. We're a podcast based out of Austria in English language for everyone out there who likes Teon. The coach is the athlete sports scientist, the fans and the families. On this episode, we are reviewing 2021, the challenges and the surprises. Welcome to our second bonus episode. I'm coach Caesar, Valenti, and with me as coach Peter Nestler. Hello, Peter, how are you? How is 22 going for

Speaker 3: 1:14

You so far? Thank you, coach Caesar. I'm fine. Um, 20, 22, we have some, well, let me say, uh, revival of the take-on events you could see in the calendar that it's, um, more full than ever. Uh, 2021 was off course, a very difficult years. We could see due to the COVID crisis, that many events got canceled. Some even twice like Austin open. Um, it was a very, a difficult year for everybody because you could not tell if an event will happen or not. And which safety measurements, um, 2022 is a little better. We could, uh, see that some events were focusing on Eastern Europe, like in, in KIRO sector, we had of championships in Bulgaria. Um, this year it's, uh, more spread out. That's, uh, better for the whole teal circus, but, uh, still we have some restrictions due to COVID regarding the traveling and also in some countries, the training get, uh, closed the facilities every now and then. So it, it, it stays a little difficult, but, uh, the top teams have learned to manage the crisis in my opinion. And I think we could, uh, face, uh, quite a normal situation in 2022, also in the bubbles we have during the events. But I think for the top, uh, events it's, it's quite normal. Um, we should talk about, in my opinion, about 21, about the big events we had there, we had the postponed Olympics. We had some, uh, big tournaments in Teon sector and we had some special cases. I think we should talk

Speaker 2: 3:11

About. Yes, last year. It is, as you mentioned, most of the events were Bulgaria. It started off the big competitions with, uh, Sophia opened in a week after that, the Turkish opened again, big Corona cluster. A lot of people had to stay longer than they predicted and to, to complete the quarantine before they travel back to their countries. The second is then it was small event in Spain. And then again, back to open for European multi games. Um, everyone was there. Lot of the teams were competing and training in Europe. The teams with a little more financial, uh, background were able to move to Europe and stay here for a few months. I'm talking from south American teams all the way to east Asian teams that were, uh, here. Of course the OCI was a little, little bit locked. They were not able to travel anywhere, but in Europe, at least things looked a little bit normal and then they didn't. We had, uh, the Olympic qualification again. So with a, a big, uh, event, a lot of countries competing, but it, it stopped until the, between the, the qualification tournament, uh, and until the Olympic games, most of the events had to be canceled post owned to the second semester. And we know that didn't happen training, uh, was most of the time, not even possible. So those events were, uh, uh, quite unfair for some of the teams that were not able to train or if they were not able to train, they had COVID quite prior or quite, uh, in the, in the weeks before the, uh, qualification events, some of them even COVID when they were already in Tokyo. So the training possibility was in my opinion, the second biggest factor for, uh, the Teon to be. So, um, impaired during the, uh, 2021, how was it for you? Were you able to train, how was, uh, situation in your club?

Speaker 3: 4:57

Well, in Australia was, uh, uh, mixed again, uh, uh, for a few weeks we're allowed to train like quite like normal. Then we only had, uh, train for the top guys. So it was a little difficult to range because you have to collect all the data you have set to set up, uh, the new schedules. So everybody has to be flexible, not only the coaches, but also athletes, maybe if it's juniors or carrots, uh, for the parents. So<laugh>, it's ambitious to keep up the good spirit and, uh, the good work in Teon when you have, uh, a change of, of, of, of measures every few weeks. But it's, uh, better now that we have the vaccination, you have the booster shots available here in Austin broad basis, and maybe we don't have another lockdown. We don't know for sure now, but I hope so we could keep the facilities open and strain almost normal.

Speaker 2: 6:00

Going back to 2021, the vaccinations were not yet quite spread. They were not mandatory for traveling. Were you able to, to actually go, uh, somewhere else or do you had to, to reduce your participation in competitions? And I know that you are very active, not only in KGI, but all also in the PSE part, you are one of the best referees, uh, in PSE in Europe, and you've been very active in the past. Did you move to online during those times?

Speaker 3: 6:26

Well, uh, uh, at first, when the COVID crisis spread in March, 2020, I thought there will be no more championships for a longer time. Um, usually I'm refereeing about 20 championships a year as an international referee. And after 21, I noticed also 20, 20, 20. I noticed that it's the same amount and even a little bit more so we didn't travel. That's true. The was only the, the last one I had was 20, 20 president's cup in hel park in Sweden. And the first one in 21 was, uh, the European championships in Portugal, 21 in November. So more than one and a half year in between, but this one was packed full of online champ. The people started to like it, there were participations of more than thousands competitors per championship. It went really big, but it also reduced is reduced now because it's too many championships and we also starts to have the life champ championships back. So, uh, um, less traveling that's true. If there was traveling, it was a little more complicated, uh, with all the certificates and vaccination and tests and whatever, but you could arrange it's no problem. And at the championships, depending in which countries, some did it really good, some, well,<affirmative> not so good. Um, you could see that if you arrange it properly, it's no problem to do so also in COVID times,

Speaker 2: 8:08

Yes, we, uh, had the biggest event, uh, was I think the multi games. And even before that we had the open, it was obvious that it was too many people at the same time. The competi had to be a little bit spread out. Uh, I think Worldcon was very, very wise in doing the decision of separating the G tournament and at least not having them on the same day or coinciding days with, um, with the junior and cadets, because we were seeing too little, uh, events on the calendar. That means the big and active teams would go to as many we events as possible. And if there's only three or four events, you have to compact what you would expect from 20 competitions or at least clubs that would not go to these or that one have to go to the competition that exists in, in order to keep your act athletes scoring for the rankings there's, um, for the kids, there is ranking, there is ranking of course, for the world and Olympic ranking athletes and, um, having everyone and more than thousand people during a Corona, uh, times in the, in the same hotel was getting a little bit risky. So they made a very smart decision of separating them. The organizers of the events are not, uh, uh, begin. They know how to do the stuff. So they started spreading the events through longer and longer, uh, time spans. Of course, it increases the expenses for the teams, especially for the coaches, because the Atlas can go and come back, uh, after their, their competition day. But the coaches and the support staff, doctors, physiotherapists, they actually have to stay there longer. The referees have to spend 6, 7, 8 days in a competition instead of the normal two, three days. And of course the cost involved with all this traveling, the days you are not at home, and you have to find replacements for your job, even if your job is Teon, you're not there in your school, someone has to give your classes. It was, uh, Teon became a little bit more expensive, but in the other hand, you were one of the, a few combat sports we're actually able to continue. I've seen many other sports. Um, even soccer had its high. It had, it had to stop. So when we talking about the big, uh, sports, when you talk about the border, uh, very small sport like ours, I'm actually quite happy. We we're able to compete. And, uh, the officials out there managed to, to bring some, uh, got interesting competition formats and talking about interesting competition formats we had in the late, uh, second semester, last year, the first women's world open championships hosted by Saudi Arabia. It was an event that was quite open. People were there from all over the world. Actually one of the first teams to register was Israel to an event in Saudi Arabia. That means, uh, Teon actually as the possibility of uniting people, but at the same time, these new competition formats bring some not only opportunities, but also some challenges. What are your opinions on the events like this?

Speaker 3: 10:48

Well, uh, on the first hand, it's, uh, important to have as many formats as possible to get, uh, a broad participation of, uh, athletes and coaches all over the world. On the other hand, you have to manage all these things. Um, so if you are a club, uh, willing to take part in all these events, you, you have to set up almost, uh, separate department to arrange all these things. Um, so it's getting more and more, uh, work, but, uh, those who keep being professional, uh, did a fantastic job. Uh, not only from the teams also from the organizers, not to forget the, the Olympics, uh, which was from the part of TaeKwonDo I could speak was very well organized. Uh, and also the other or life events we had. So we will see, um, future, um, more formats like, uh, we had the, the, the female, the women's event. They have the juniors they have under 21. They have, uh, all kinds of, of formats they wanna, uh, develop. And maybe some of them is only trying what happens, but I'm quite positive about all these things that they will help us develop. Techn Manor,

Speaker 1: 12:12

Your listening to the tech one do podcast. Now back to your hosts, coach Caesar, Valenti team, and Peter Nestler.

Speaker 2: 12:23

Let's talk about the Olympics 20, 21. Of course, we could not continue talking about 20, 21 without talking about the Olympics. We, I would start actually with, uh, with talking about COVID, but will talk about what happened to Hemi ING. It was quite a surprising, uh, uh, moment, quite an emotional moment if you followed her Instagram, uh, was it expected, do you really, uh, would you see in any other solution for the Olympics except, uh, quarantining the athlete, would you accept like a last minute, uh, replacement from the national team or even a, a wild card in the last minute?

Speaker 3: 12:58

Uh, speaking from the viewpoint of, of teams, of athletes, of coaches, I would love to have that, but I also understand that it's, especially in times, like, uh, the COVID times very difficult to arrange things, uh, things that, so you have to have an understanding for the organizers as well. Uh, for the, the athletes. It would've been really great to nominate the next one in the list for sure. But I also, I mean, it was fun to see has me, uh, having fun in a room in, in, in Tokyo. So<laugh>, we have missed it.

Speaker 2: 13:36

Yes. Well, uh, it's definitely a moment that will stay in history. Um, the Olympics had a lot of actually historical moments. We had some surprises we had, uh, we'll go through all the different weight divisions and the medalists, but also about the ones who didn't medal it. Uh, I will start of course, with the, the biggest surprise of the event for those who didn't know her, those who were been following her for quite a few years, like you and I, uh, already expected something like that is of course, uh, the, not the winner, but the silver medalist from the 49th division at. So she was, uh, an amazing athlete coming out of Spain from the international international school from Kasu Kama and Somi koan. She managed to get all the way a junior career with a lot of, uh, success, a European junior champion under 21, uh, Olympic weight divisions. And then she, she managed to qualify via Olympic, uh, qualification tournament by, um, uh, European qualification, uh, tournament. Then she went to the Olympics and she did an amazing, uh, um, journey. She, she wented positive with her mindfulness and her happiness and her, uh, state of, uh, dedication, but the same time focus, uh, during the matches, uh, starting with the big surprises, she eliminated China, she eliminated, um, uh, Serbia and all the way to losing the last eight seconds, um, to pan pack won PA Patan, then, uh, in a very, very, uh, emotional match. And it was, uh, uh, a pleasure. It was actually one of the best moments I've seen in Teon history, because it promoted our sport as an aggressive combat sport, but at the same time, a friendly and profess sport, the fact that if you followed her Instagram, um, before the Olympic, uh, the day she had something like 3 0 4, 5,000 followers, and, uh, almost 100,000 under the first 24 hours, she was not only an inspiration for the sport, but also for every other sport. Um, what do you looking back at the, at the 40 and, and PAC OV there is a few more surprises like Aish Sandberg from Israel. Um, you remember that they were, what was, uh, your opinion? What is your opinion on the 40 nines?

Speaker 3: 15:44

The 49 was, uh, as you said, a mixer of, uh, some surprises, uh, for those, uh, who did up no, Adrian and her coach? Well, her coach is well known, but, uh, the, the work between them before, but, uh, the two of us were following, uh, Adriana and Jesus and also vie for a long time. So we know, and we also saw it in, in, in the VI, in the curriculum Vita that, uh, well winning junior championships, um, it was clear for me that she would reach, um, at least the semi-finals at the Olympics.

Speaker 2: 16:21

I think maybe the big surprise was that since the 2000 and, uh, and the, and 20 world championships were canceled, she didn't have, didn't have the opportunity to showcase the world championships and that got some of the senior best surprise. Yeah,

Speaker 3: 16:34

That's true. So if you've, if you had a glimpse on the, on the, on the past, you could have seen that she's on, on a very good path. And, uh, she showed it perfectly to, in my opinion, it was fantastic, uh, on a, a, on a sports basis to see an athlete come in smile and, uh, changing to a very high level of focus afterwards when she was on the Mount and the mattress of course were, were brilliant, very exercising finally against, uh, uh, Thailand. And so it was really nice. Uh, the only little surprise for me was aha from Israel, but she was a also, uh, training very well in the last months in her preparation. So the no big surprises, uh, uh, puck, uh, missed out on, uh, on the big success in the Olympics before, like, uh, yeah, that happens. I mean, Tiana in 49, also very nice to say so strong category.

Speaker 2: 17:39

Well, the, the 57 was, uh, was not only surprising from the, the, the victories, but also from the, the ones who didn't win their boats. Um, again, Anta teach, uh, good friends of ours. Good friend. She's been in Oxford training with us. We've been training with her, um, talented athletes, junior world champion, silver medals, but youth Olympics. It was, uh, um, expected for her to be actually in the top position. We've seen her, uh, winning against J Jones at the grand PR event. Um, the final against, uh, Taana Nina was actually very exciting. Um, very nervewracking nail biting, uh, match that before we get to the finals, the day started with the biggest, uh, uh, and most interesting surprises when we have Kim Aliza day, uh, refugee team Europe, uh, uh, all the Iranian national team, silver Olympic medalists coming all the way for on the refugee program to the Olympics, uh, eliminating Iran on the first match and surprisingly, um, winning against, uh, the favorite J Jones on the second match. That was, uh, probably the biggest, uh, um, uh, surprise of day, even more disappointing when she lost the third boat. And, uh, didn't get a chance of a Sage for Jade eliminating her completely from what would be what she announced many times as her third, uh, uh, gold Olympic medal. So 57, definitely a second day, that was not so easy. And a lot of nail biting, a lot of nerve-wracking moments and congratulations to Anas.<inaudible> also to her coach, Garrett bra not forgetting her, uh, pathway that Danny white and all her team before in Florida, they did manage to come all the way from different injuries. Uh, we remember that she went into the youth Olympics with a broken hand and still made the final, um, but she had other problems throughout, uh, the career. She moved to a different city, and then she came all the way to Tokyo to, to, to bring the gold medal, but there's also other good results, ADA. She was a very good result for Turkey, someone that is always there on the top. And it was a surprising medal, 57 were, what is your opinion on the 57

Speaker 3: 19:52

Peter? Well, the 57 was full of surprises, as you said, J Jones, uh, dropping out very early and, uh, not getting the chance to get back out. Uh, that was rather disappointing, not only for her, but, uh, for many followers, but on the other end, uh, on a stage as a very young, uh, very motivated, very well trained athlete, and she has a great backup from her team, perfectly planned, everything. So that comes and, and just to, to tell the people, you cannot, uh, construct a gold medal in Olympics. So sometimes there is surprises. Sometimes there is not, uh, 57 was full of surprises. That's true.

Speaker 2: 20:36

The 60 sevens were well, pretty much what we expected, except for the final. That was an exciting, again, one of the most beautiful matches we could see against, um, between material and Lauren Williams. It was right there, uh, the two favorites meeting each other in the final. So no big surprise there Gabi also, uh, and the podium position. So is, uh, um, had I, so the, the podium was pretty well. Um, the favorite, the, the fight between Matt mate, Lauren Williams was in your case, uh, it was what you expected. You would expect Lauren Williams, uh, not to get the gold medal.

Speaker 3: 21:17

Um, Lauren Williams is always very dedicated when you see a fighting, uh, in her matches, especially in the important matches. Uh, but on the other hand, Mattia has a great experience from the past. So it's always, uh, it's always, uh, the form of the day who, which depends, um, in that case was okay for me, but still very exercising to watch, especially all the female matches at the Olympic, maybe all the finals at the Olympics. Um, and in that case, uh, both would've been okay for me to win. It was this time or last year it was mate. So con congrats. That was okay.

Speaker 2: 22:02

It, it, it does come all to the day. Oh, you are that day. I remember maybe 2012 when I, Sebastian charism won the gold in minus 80. That was a big surprise. That was his day. Um, uh, it was definitely the underdog on, on the, one of the underdogs on that tournament. And he came out, uh, superior. It was his day and we talked about the 40 nines. Maybe it was not at Arianna's day. Um, it was the penny packs, uh, a day. She got her gold. She was preparing for that in the 67, was it, it could go either way. It was really a cons throw. It could be a contest away from one or the other, and it was, uh, what it was very, very close match. The final was then, uh, an interesting comeback from a historical veteran, the first gold medalist from a, uh, service since a Govia right. Um, coming back again, nine years later to the podium against Korea leaving, uh, Atlas like Lauren or Bianca Walden, uh, in the third position, it definitely, uh, uh, final last day, of course, a great day for Serb. It was the second gold for militia, but was also the second gold a second world, the second medal in Tokyo for a, for a gala Dragovich so definitely, uh, a successful day for, for Serbia, the, the matches women's heavyweight, we cannot count on. So we match excite and exciting, uh, matches, but we have, of course the podium positions, they're strong, we're talking about Bianca Walden, uh, queen be her nickname, right. Militia man, um, Lauren and, uh, Lee D they are great athletes and, but it's, it's a division you wouldn't expect. Uh, so someone that's not so young, like, uh, Melissa to actually able to, to do all those matches and come out, uh, with such endurance and such powerful in the final match.

Speaker 3: 23:52

Yeah, that's true. That was for me the biggest, uh, surprise that, uh, Mila was able to, to once again, uh, have this, uh, place on the, the first place on the podium, them in a, in a, not too big, but very strong groups because, um, there is very big groups like the other weight classes and the, the heavyweight is always a little smaller, but, uh, at the Olympics, these are very good athletes, all of them who are on the podium now. So you just it's, uh, mil and Bianca Watton, maybe I was surprised that Bianca Watton was not in final, but<laugh>, uh, once again, this was the day

Speaker 2: 24:35

It happened. Yeah. It would be also the day for UNG. If she wasn't, uh, uh, in, in our hotel room, in the ADLIs village, Olympic village, she in quarantine would be her second Olympics, a chance to, to, to enjoy what would be the last Olympics in her career. She announced before that she would, uh, move into a coaching position before that. And yeah, it, it didn't went as expected, but again, those are the moments we live in and the COVID is something we have to be prepared at all these years in new. And, uh, uh, of training can be beaten by a little virus that is shows that it's sometimes what you cannot see that, uh, uh, takes you out of the way. Um, I would let you maybe talk a little bit about, uh, male division.

Speaker 3: 25:20

Yeah. Uh, coming to the male divisions, uh, for me, there was, uh, one division which had, uh, uh, the winner. It, uh,<laugh>, it was programmed before it was a minus 80 with Maxim Cru tr, but, uh, in maybe all the other cases you could speak about, uh, surprise, let's start at the, the flyways minus 58 Italy again on the first place with, uh, Vito de um, very nice, uh, paths through the full event. So very nice matches, very focused, dedicated. So, uh, when it just saw the matches, it was okay. When you are looking into the past, maybe there could be some other winners, but, uh, Congress congrats, Toto. Very nice thing to do. You had Mohammed KA Dubby from Tunisia, which, uh, is Al also maybe a little surprised that he was in the finals and got, uh, silver only bronze for South Korea again, uh, and, uh, Russia grabbing a second bronze Miha art. Um, what do you think about the, the lightweights,

Speaker 2: 26:33

The, the, the, the, when the flyweight started? It started, uh, me, of course, being Portuguese. I was glued to the TV screen because I had, uh, like a competitor in that division. And it was surprising to see the, the match with, uh, with Spain seeing Spain losing the second match was of course, a little bit disappointing, again, the same situation with J Jones. It means that, uh, Nessa could not move all the way to the finals, or at least to the sorry to the bronze medal, uh, uh, uh, massage the rest of the event. Um, Vito was, it was known, but it was not, uh, someone you would call a favorite, um, Korea of course, and Russia would be there on the top. Uh, I've seen the Mohamed also very, uh, uh, developing since his early age. Egypt is sorry, T is a, a strong team, and we knew we would be one of the favorites, but we all is counted Africa, um, being, not in the, the Northern Africa as being the strongest, at least not in male, um, with the exception of Egypt and the, uh, being into the final with Vito was, again, Vito had the day Vito had is the, it was really good. And we know that, uh, even though his techniques are not the most, uh, uh, um, fantastic or not the most, uh, acrobatic, when we look at the, the 58, it was actually very interesting to see his precision and how we managed to very accurate with a lot of accuracy, very accurate techniques, get all the way to the, to the gold medal. So, and what about the federated?

Speaker 3: 28:01

The fed weight is 68. Uh, when you look at the, the podium, you have, uh, the winner with, uh, Pakistan, uh, historic, uh, gold with<inaudible> OV on second place. We have Bradley Sinon from great Britain grabbing silver. You have the two branches with Han rich bear from, uh, Turkey. And so Shua from China. So we know the names. Maybe it's a little surprise how they're mixed. Um, Syon was one of the favorites. Clearly he was in a final once again, it was a brilliant match against OV and, uh, the winner was the one who had more points. So<laugh> in that case. I mean, it, it switches from second to second. So you could have seen, like, in the 49 female was switching one on top, then the other one. So the longer it takes, then you have a different winner in this time. It was OV um, yeah, no big surprises, but maybe little was in the, in the current positions. What do you think about, uh, 68?

Speaker 2: 29:09

The final was definitely, uh, a little bit like a basketball match. Every there<laugh>, uh, I score use corn and it was, uh, uh, an interesting mile about, of course, Ulu back was for me the, uh, uh, a big surprise. I was seeing bright in old increasing his performance, and, uh, would assume that his training plan would put him in big performance on, on that day. Um, it was, uh, it was an emotional and historical moment for his Pakistan and probably a little short for, for Bradley and for the great GB team hack come in. The third place was, um, surprising how he actually managed to knock out, not knock out, but technical, uh, elimination of, of the Brazilian player by, uh, uh, heating him on, on the, on the, on the side. It would not be able to see him come. And it was, uh, the way you, he eliminates number one, uh, in the ranking to, to, to move forward shows that surprisingly, because the, usually the Turkish team is more on the, um, on the one to one, uh, player that they did, uh, uh, varied decisive training. And it's important also these ranking system to know you're gonna months in advance, who you're gonna, uh, face in the Olympics and they did their homework, and it was, um, congratulations for them, China, again, falling short from the, from the gold medal, one of the big tallest athletes in the division. Um, actually not being able to, to go to the final most, uh, seven, um, probably, uh, miscalculation on the planning on the preparation, or again,<laugh> who back and England were having better days. And they managed to get all the way to the gold and silver.

Speaker 3: 30:52

Yeah. Coming to the minus at, for me, the minus 80 mail is, uh, the result was the less surprising. So Maxim comes to, for me is the, uh, most sophisticated athlete, the most, uh, talented athlete for me in the minus 80 currently. And he was the winner. He was a clear winner, um, through all these, his matches. So alti from Jordan, really nice athlete, uh, good technique. Uh, he showed good mattress. Uh, so second place should be okay for me. A little surprise was Tony con Knight from, uh, Croatia getting the bronze, but at the Olympics, he showed that he deserves it. And, uh, we all know say visa from Egypt, very well trained athlete, uh, good experience. So no big surprises in the minor. It for me,

Speaker 2: 31:48

Indeed, Maxim has a huge fan base. He's very well known. He's an amazing competitor, the male, uh, fan base for probably different reasons that the female fan base. Um, but the, it indeed was not a big surprise winner. Yes. Croatia here, the, on the same day, uh, on the, sorry, on the, on the same day as the, the getting two medals, it was, uh, obviously, uh, a big surprise. We, we wouldn't, we know Tony, we know he is, uh, an athlete that has, um, a big, uh, developing career coming to a, um, a bronze medal to Olympics was definitely, uh, a good day for them.

Speaker 3: 32:28

Last one is the heavyweights. Um, also not big surprises, but, uh, as I was talking before the 1 68, it could have been a different setting with Ladi love Laine from Russia, again, VIN winning the gold medal. Um, he was, there is not a, a single favorite for me in the heavyweights male, but he was one of them. So it was quite okay. Uh, as surprise again, deja, G GKI with Macedonia getting through to the finals and grabbing silver in a nice match. Again, Lu love was, uh, uh, little surprise and also exercising, uh, sorry. Um, really nice finals. We had South Korea and Cuba in the bronze medals with South Korea in on, uh, not really surprised that he's, uh, on a podium, but, uh, Raba, uh, yeah, this again was one of the stories from, from Olympia

Speaker 2: 33:32

<laugh>. Yeah, I would, uh, actually we keep saying Russia, it's not Russia. It's the Russian Olympic committee flag. They are not allowed to compete with our, uh, national flag, but we all know the difference is not that much. Um, Korea definitely, uh, disappointing for them. They were, uh, for the first time, since Teo was in the Olympics, that didn't get a gold medal. That was the same also with the run had caught zero medals at this event. So the big, uh, turnaround in the Teon, this was actually historical moment because it shows that all the other countries are catching up with the big powerhouse. Also with the great Britain, not getting more than, uh, more medals where even though they were aiming at at least two or three goals. So Rafael Alba, yes, Rafael, ABA, like the Cubans, they don't go out too much, but when they go, they go in strength and Rafael Alba is, is a notal athlete. He is one of the strongest definitely. Um, in my opinion, one of the toughest players in the, in his weight division, he's strong, he's tall, he's smart. He's, uh, has great resources, surprisingly, uh, day and Vadi love went, uh, to the final with, uh, clear, clear, um, uh, a superiority to their opponents into to making it all the way to the, to the, to the top two positions in the podium. This was, uh, 2 20 21 was, uh, an interesting Olympic game, uh, because it was also the first games that carat was, uh, first and only<laugh> that they were, uh, sharing a little bit of the spotlight in terms of combat sports. But the fact that we had all these technology, the 4d cameras, and also very exciting moments, not, uh, that the clear decisions on the superiority or the victories, um, not, it just didn't happen with other sports here. It was very clear in these Olympics. We even had people sharing, uh, gold medals in the same, uh, uh, discipline in, uh, TaeKwonDo. It was very clear. It was, uh, uh, very smooth, uh, Olympics. There was no problematics in terms of technology, no problematic in terms of refereeing. It was, uh, of course, very fair, uh, metal distribution. And I think it brings the sport to a different level. It definitely puts the spot, the sport in the spotlight of many national Olympic committees and allowing a lot more countries to have more funding and to develop the sport even more creating, even stronger, uh, events. So thank you, Peter. It was a pleasure being here with you and with everyone who is listening. This was the second bonus episode from our Teon do podcast. If you haven't already listened to the first one that is also available online, we are releasing new episodes every Tuesday. And the first episode is already out there. Stay tuned to subscribe to the podcast, leave us a positive review and share it with your friends. See you next time.

Speaker 1: 36:12

You've been listening to the Teon do podcast, keeping the fans, coach, and high performance athletes up to date with the latest news and trends on Olympic Teon do your host coach Caesar Valenti team has almost 20 years of experience with high performance TaeKwonDo and has worked all around the world. As a TaeKwonDo trainer. Peter Nestler has been teaching TaeKwonDo for more than 20 years, and he is currently one of the top referees in Europe. We hope you enjoyed the show, make sure to like rate and review and we'll be back soon. But in the meantime, find us on instagram@teondopodcastonfacebookattechonedocastandthewebsitetechonedoepodcast.com. See you next time. Okay.