Taekwondo at the 2012 London Summer Games:

Spain’s Joel González was heavily favored, having won the World Championships in 2009 and 2011, and the European Championships in 2010 and 2012. He was challenged in round one by Sweden’s Uno Sanli but he held on to win and then won his quarter-final and semi easily, advancing to the final against [Lee Dae-Hoon] of Korea. Lee had a difficult time getting there, going extra time to win his first two matches and eking out a tight match against Russia’s Aleksey Denisenko in the semi-finals. Denisenko had won his quarter-final against Chinese Taipei’s Wei Chen-Yang, the original second seed.

The final was not close as González took the lead in round one and simply poured it on, scoring six points early with two head kicks, and then being helped by Lee accumulating penalties that gave González another three points. The final score was 17-8, as González won Spain’s first gold medal in the sport. Denisenko shared the bronze medal with Colombia’s [Oscar Muñoz].