Park siblings climb podium at Pan American Games

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This article was published 23/10/2023 (685 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Skylar Park hit the trifecta Sunday night.

The 24-year-old Winnipegger captured her third major international title in less than a month, defeating Brazil’s Maria Clara Pacheco with some valuable late points in the gold-medal match of the women’s 57-kilogram taekwondo event at the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile.

Earlier this fall, Park won the Pan American President’s Cup in Rio de Janeiro and followed that up with a victory in the prestigious Taiyuan World Taekwondo Grand Prix in China.

The hottest streak of her competitive career hasn’t been without a physical toll.

“I was dealing with a few minor, minor bumps and bruises and injuries coming off the China Grand Prix, which didn’t make it an easy day but we were able to get through it for sure,” said Park by telephone Monday.

“To do three events in 3 1/2 weeks isn’t typical and especially to go through to the final in all of them — that’s a lot of fights in every single event. I fought strong and fought in all the matches that I could at every single event and that’s obviously taxing on the body, especially with the travel — going from South America, back home, to Asia, back home and back to South America. It’s been pretty crazy but it’s all paid off.”

In the last month, the world No. 4 fighter has earned 120 points toward what she hopes will qualify her for the Paris Summer Olympics.

A day earlier, Skylar’s 22-year-old brother, Tae-Ku, capped a successful Pan American Games debut by winning a bronze medal in the men’s 68-kilogram class, while 20-year-old Braven, the youngest Park sibling, lost a tough a bronze-medal match in the men’s 58-kilogram weight class to Columbia’s Jhon Garrido Reyes, 2-0.

Fellow Winnipeg athlete Kelsey Wog, meanwhile, struck silver in Santiago on Monday. The former University of Manitoba star swimmer was second in the women’s 200-metre breaststroke, finishing with a time of 2:23.49, a fraction of a second behind Canadian teammate Sydney Pickrem.

“One of the expectations we had was improving on her performance from the world championships in the summer,” said Canadian coach Vlastik Cerny. “And so that was a really good result. Her race and racing in the moment in the final was one of the best that she’s ever put together at this at this level. Even though it’s a silver, it’s a huge win for Kelsey.”

Meanwhile, Tae-Ku Park opened his Pan Am Games campaign with a 2-0 triumph over Ecuador’s Jose Nieto Preciado, beat Chile’s Ignacio Morales Puentes 2-1 in the quarter-finals before losing 2-1 in a semifinal to Bernardo Pie from the Dominican Republic.

He rebounded to defeat Cuba’s Angel Fernandez Marin for the bronze, 2-0.

“Overall I’m really happy with it,” said Tae-Ku. “There were some things that I can improve on, that we’re going to work on when we do get back home. I think I could have ended up on the top of the podium that day but it just didn’t end up working out for me. But overall I think I did perform well and I fought some top names and came out on top.”

Beating Puentes, the hometown hero, was a highlight for the Canadian.

“To come back here and fight him at home with the crowd screaming for him and kind of taking that energy from them as well as from our whole Canadian team, hearing them in the stands as well as my family, it just kind of brought me another level of energy and I was able to come out on top,” said Tae-Ku.

Entering the competition seeded sixth, he was encouraged by his close semifinal match with the second-seeded Pie.

“I’ve never fought him before so having this experience of fighting him and now I know that I can fight with these guys and I can beat them, which is good momentum as I go on to try to qualify for Paris,” said Tae-Ku.

Jae Park, who coaches all three of his children, had these words of wisdom for his daughter after winning gold: “He’s like, ‘OK, we’re done with last-second wins, we’re done with the headache of that,’” said Skylar, who debuted with a silver medal at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru.

“I’ve never fought him before so having this experience of fighting him and now I know that I can fight with these guys and I can beat them, which is good momentum as I go on to try to qualify for Paris,”– Tae-Ku Park.

The trip to Chile has been a much-anticipated homecoming for the Park family.

Skylar’s mom, Andrea, was born in Chile and many of her relatives and friends were in attendance at Santiago’s sold-out Contact Sports Center. Following Tuesday’s team competition, the Parks will be staying over for a few days to visit with relatives.

“It was just cool to have them there and have them be so excited,” said Skylar, who will close out the 2023 season at the Grand Prix final in Manchester, England, Dec. 2-3. “I think everyone in my family back home is so invested in the sport and they’ve done it and they’ve gone through it and they’re all black belts. But to have family that isn’t super tied to the sport but still just as excited and just as happy for you, it was awesome.”

Braven Park’s narrow miss could be a precursor to bigger things.

“His time will come — he’s young — but we’re all super proud of him,” said Skylar.

Added Tae-Ku Park: “That bronze-medal match, it was really tight. Even (Braven’s) semifinals match… was super close. It just didn’t happen that day but I’m sure he’ll come back even stronger now.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca