Skylar Park's second chance leads to Olympic bronze in taekwondo

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PARIS – In Winnipeg, the Park family holds 16 black belts.

Now, they have an Olympic bronze medal, too.

Skylar Park navigated a 16-hour day and a second chance via the repechage to outpoint Lebanon’s Laetitia Aoun 2-0 in a women’s 57-kg, third-place match Thursday at the Grand Palais.

“When I qualified for the Games, it wasn’t ‘Skylar qualified,’” said the 25-year-old, fourth-generation taekwondo practitioner. “It was Team Park qualified, and so the same thing goes today. Team Park won a bronze medal and I’m grateful to share it with them.”

Her father Jae, who runs a taekwondo club back home, is her coach. Brothers Braven and Tae-Ku, both Pan Am Games competitors, provided support.

Mother Andrea, also a master instructor, was part of the rowdy crowd that saw Skylar became the third Canadian with a taekwondo medal after Karine Sergerie (silver) in Beijing 2008 and fellow Winnipegger Dominique Bosshart (bronze) in Sydney 2000.

“We’ve gone through a lot over the past eight months,” said Skylar Park, who revealed an undisclosed injury suffered last winter was a major concern leading up to the Games. “I have a really good team that allowed me to be here. Eight months ago, I didn’t know if I would be well enough to be here competing.”

The day of competition was a slog. Park was up at 5:40 a.m., and arrived at the venue at 6:50 a.m. Her opening match was just after 9 a.m. and she earned her medal in her fourth outing around 9 p.m.

“We had a plan to get up to get a little bit of takeout food at the dining hall,” her father said. “Obviously, she was late doing her hair and pretty-ing herself up. She looked good coming out, though, so I couldn’t say anything. (We) rushed straight to the bus here and now we’re sitting here with a bronze medal for Canada.”

The hardest part for Park was dealing with the aftermath of a quarter-final loss to eventual champion Kim Yu-jin of South Korea. If Kim didn’t qualify for the final, then Park’s tournament was finished.

But Kim advanced and the Canadian was back in the medal mix through the repechage. Park beat Turkey’s Hatice Kubra Ilgan 2-0 (6-4, 3-2) to set up the encounter with Aoun.

“We didn’t expect Korea to be that strong because normally she isn’t,” said Jae Park. “She was on fire and we had to contend with that. Fortunately, she won so we came back (for bronze).”

Up until the Kim loss, Jae was the ‘nice’ coach to Skylar.

But the second life meant it was time for a Jekyll and Hyde transformation.

“I had to see if I could bring something extra out of her,” he said, “so I was a little bit meaner to her — still telling her ‘I love you, but you better get this done because that’s your job.’”

There was one more incentive.

“’You need to get this done so you and mom can go shopping,’” the father said. “Buy whatever you want. It’s a family affair. My wife sacrifices everything she has for all three children to be here. Her brothers were amazing (support).”

You don’t get on the Olympic podium without that kind of help. But you also have to put in the effort – morning, noon and night – while rising to the occasion in a big moment.

“I couldn’t be more proud,” said Jae Park, “not because of this, but because of who she is. As a coach, I will take a million Skylars any day – just the work ethic, the attitude. My grey hairs indicate a little bit of stress. People ask me how do you do coach and dad. You know how they say ignorance is bliss?

“I don’t know any better and she doesn’t know any better.”

rpyette@postmedia.com