Zhao Shuai

Chinese taekwondo athlete Zhao Shuai is an Olympic gold medallist, a World Champion, and an Asian Games and Asian Championships medallist. Zhao previously competed in the -63kg and -58kg divisions, but today most often competes at -68kg, and he has topped the World Kyorugi Ranking. In recognition of his achievements and popularity as a sportsman, he was selected as China’s flagbearer at the 2018 Asian Games.

First competing at junior level, Shuai took a first Open title in Trelleborg, and later took bronze at the World Junior Championships in 2012. His first major senior success would come two years later, with a gold medal win at the US Open in Las Vegas, and he later debuted at the Grand Prix and competed at the Asian Games in Incheon. Over the following seasons, Zhao claimed further Open Tournament golds in the US and Indonesia, climbed his first Grand Prix podium with a silver medal in Manchester, and took senior World Championships bronze at Chelyabinsk in 2015. At that year’s Summer Universiade in Gwangju, he again claimed silver, and later topped the competition at his continental Olympic qualifying tournament in Manila, earning him a ticket to the 2016 Games.

At the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, Zhao stormed through the early rounds of the -58kg competition, and would go on to defeat Thailand’s Tawin Hanprab in the final. Having earned the Olympic title, he would add another the following year when he was victorious at the World Championships in Muju. He has since gone on to pick up an Asian Games silver in Jakarta, to take gold at 2018’s Grand Slam in Wuxi, and to successfully defend his title at the 2019 World Championships in Manchester.