Jade Jones’s dream of a third Olympic gold medal was shattered when she lost her first bout at Paris 2024.
Any hopes she harboured of fighting her way into bronze medal contention evaporated too when her conqueror Milijana Reljiki was eliminated in her next bout.
The GB star lost a close contest to North Macedonia’s Reljiki in her opening in the impressive surroundings of the Grand Palais, a historic venue with huge banks of seats soaring up on either side of the field of play.
Jones tries to catch Milijana Reljiki
Jones had won gold medals at both London 2012 and Rio 2016 but suffered a painful first-round exit at the Tokyo Games.
She met the same fate in Paris, even though Reljiki managed to edge her out only on a fine margin.
That crushed Jones’ plans to become taekwondo’s first three-time Olympic gold medallist.
“I came out today, I froze,” Jones said bitterly. “The expectation, the pressure, I was trying to do something that no one had done. I knew I could. I was good enough.
“When it comes down to it sometimes you just freeze. You want it too much almost.”
Jones lost the first round with Reljiki landing a kick to her head to claim the session. The Briton steadied herself in the second, taking that to make sure the contest went into a third, deciding round.
Reljiki lands a kick to the head (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Reljiki picked up a point to go ahead initially in the third but, despite trailing, Jones managed to level the score 1-1.
As Reljiki’s kicks flew at her, she spun away but could not find a breakthrough of her own.
That meant they were effectively tied. Therefore the athlete with the fewer penalties who had made the most impact on the electronic scoring system wins. That was Reljiki.
Jones slumped to her knees at the result in despair.
“She was a very strong opponent, two times [Olympic champion]. It was my honour to fight with her,” Reljiki said afterwards.
“I just had to believe in myself. I worked so hard for this.”
For Jones to stay in the tournament and have a shot at a bronze medal via the repechage, she needed to Reljiki to progress to the final.
However Reljiki was defeated in the quarter-finals, losing to Lebanon’s Laetitia Aoun.
Jones reflected: “I’m devastated. I came here to win. I knew I could win out of everybody.
“I’m just gutted that I didn’t show what I’m capable of, what me and the coaches worked so hard to show. If anything that’s the biggest regret.”
She felt she was ready “physically but obviously not mentally”.
Jones said: “I always know when I’m warming up, or before it when I come out, I just wasn’t letting my legs go, I wasn’t listening to my coach. I was just not in the zone.
“Right now it’s pretty hard but I’m super proud of having the courage to try and do something that no one’s done.
“The more you win the harder it gets, the pressure, the mental side of it. It’s just tough.”
Controversy had overshadowed her in the build-up to these Games. Jones failed to submit to a drug test last December but was not banned after UKAD decided there was “no fault or negligence for the missed test” on her part due to “loss of cognitive capacity”.
Jones now has to make a decision about her competitive future
“They came on dehydration day. I wasn’t in the right mind,” Jones explained. “You’re losing the weight, you haven’t eaten and drank for a few days.
“It’s sport and there’s fine margins, different athletes dehydrate different amounts… I wasn’t in the right mind to sign a piece of paper.
“I was lucky that they looked into it and it all got sorted and it was all proven I was innocent. I’m just grateful to be here.
“I’ve never taken drugs, I’ve done hundreds of tests and since then I think I’ve done 13 more tests, blood, and I’ve never had anything in my system.”
She did not however blame that furore for contributing to her defeat, saying: “It didn’t help but that’s not the reason why I lost. I’m very grateful, and very lucky, for everybody looking into it properly. I made a mistake.”
Jones is 31 years old and has a decision to make on her competitive future and whether she can do another Olympic cycle.
“Anything I do I commit 100 per cent. Everything was all obviously for Paris. I’ll just go back home, see my family and see,” she said.
“I don’t know yet, I’m not sure.”