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“Life is not always a fairytale,” said Bradly Sinden – and, at the Grand Palais, he certainly found that out the hard way.
The taekwondo fighter admits he broke down in tears after pulling out of his Olympic bronze medal match due to a knee injury he suffered in his quarter-final bout.
The 68kg fighter, who won Olympic silver in Tokyo three years ago, fears he has torn the medial cruciate ligament in his left knee and was unable to take on China’s Liang Yushuai in the third-place play-off.
Sinden’s injury almost certainly cost him a shot at gold and completes a miserable day for Great Britain’s taekwondo team after Jade Jones suffered a first-round exit earlier on Thursday.
Both were expected to compete for medals but both left in tears.
“I thought I had a really good chance to win gold,” Doncaster’s Sinden said, “I thought I got myself into a really good position to get gold. I was unfortunate in my second fight, I felt my knee go. I knew the feeling and it stopped me from performing at my best in the semi-finals.
“I could not do the kicks I wanted and people know I am a lot more active, but there I was restricted. I thought I fought a good game and did what I could do. It is unfortunate my body could not keep up.”
It’s also a reminder of how brutal a sport taekwondo is. Athletes compete from February to December and wear and tear is inevitable – but in this case, the timing feels unfair.
Sinden, a strong gold medal hope, looked superb in his first fight of the day, as he saw off Papua New Guinea’s Kevin Sogo Kassman 2-0 in the best-of-three rounds encounter. He was so dominant, he won the first round 12-0 and the second 15-3.
That put him against Croatia’s Marko Golubic and Sinden bossed the first round there as well. But mid-way through the second, he felt his knee give way and from there, his Olympics changed.
Golubic recovered to win the second round and force a decider but Sinden, to his credit, re-adjusted and still managed to win and make it through the semi-finals.
There, he was against Jordan’s Zaid Kareem but he had restricted mobility and was eventually picked off in the last round. The 25-year-old was due back just two hours later for the bronze medal match, but opted not to risk making it worse.
“I decided when I was crying outside,” he said of his decision to pull out.
“I was speaking to my family and making the decision. I commend people who can go and fight for bronze, but an injury is a different story. Otherwise, I would have given everything to get bronze.
“Knowing how my knee was and how restricted my knee was in that semi-final, I just knew my body did not have it in it, so I made the tough call to not compete.
“I need to get it scanned but from I think I have torn my MCL. I did it mid-way through the second round, I was winning comfortably but then you saw he started to claw it back. I just had to re-assess what to do to get through to the semi-finals and then change my gameplan.”
Sinden is not leaving Paris just yet and is sticking around to support girlfriend Rebecca McGowan and their taekwondo teammate Caden Cunningham when they compete on Saturday – but admits his long-term plans are uncertain.
“Injuries do happen in this sport but I also want to thank my family and especially the National Lottery,” he added.
“Without my mum I would not be here at all – and the fans. This is an amazing venue and I had a good time. Losing is hard, but we move on.
“It has been a hard three years after Tokyo, I got back on the horse and made it here. Now, I want to re-evaluate and rehab my knee.”
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