Flyweight (≤49 kilograms), Women

Defending Olympic champion, Thailand’s Panipak Wongpattanakit, was the overwhelming favorite for the women’s lightweight category. Her two main contenders were Croatia’s Lena Stojković and Türkiye’s Merve Dinçel, the gold medalists in the finweight and flyweight divisions at the most recent World Championships.

In Paris, on 7 August 2024, nobody could stop Wongpattanakit, who won the final against China’s Guo Qing by 6-3, 2-3, 6-2. The final match was the most difficult Wongpattanakit fought on the day, having sailed through all the earlier bouts with two-round wins. With this triumph, she made history, becoming the first person from Thailand to win two gold medals, in her third Olympic appearance, after taking bronze at Rio 2016 and gold at Tokyo 2020. The two-time World champion confirmed this would be her final Olympics due to injuries.

Wongpattanakit had already risen to fame in her home country by winning Thailand’s first gold medal in taekwondo at the Tokyo Games. With 1.6 million followers on TikTok, Wongpattanakit was known for the way she kicked by raising her leg from the back to strike the trunk protector. Lena Stojković and Iran’s Mobina Nematzadeh won the bronze medals. Leshoto’s taekwondoka Michelle Tau competed in the 2017 Face of Beauty International pageant in New Delhi after being crowned Face of Lesotho.