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Refugee taekwondo athlete Alizadeh eliminates two-time gold medalist Jade Jones

Refugee taekwondo athlete Alizadeh eliminates two-time gold medalist Jade Jones
Posted at 8:39 PM, Jul 24, 2021
and last updated 2021-07-25 01:14:13-04

Following back-to-back taekwondo gold medals in 2012 and 2016, Great Britain's Jade "The Headhunter" Jones has been eliminated from competition in the round of 16.

Jones, seeded first, lost 12-16 to refugee athlete Kimia Alizadeh. Alizadeh had won her preliminary match just over an hour prior. 

Alizadeh was born in Iran and competed for her home country at the Rio 2016 Games, where she became the first Iranian woman to win a medal at a Summer Olympics. Just 18 years old at the time, she took home bronze in the 57kg weight class. In January 2020, she defected from Iran to live in Europe. 

"I am one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran who they have been playing with for years," she said.

In addition to collecting a slew of championship titles from throughout the past decade, Jones was selected as the BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year in 2012, and was appointed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 2013.