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| 2021-07-25 22:37:09
(LEAD) (Olympics) taekwondo athlete-retirement
(LEAD) (Olympics) S. Korean taekwondo star Lee Dae-hoon announces retirement
(ATTN: ADDS comments, details from para 8)
By Yoo Jee-ho
CHIBA, Japan, July 25 (Yonhap) -- Two-time Olympic taekwondo medalist Lee Dae-hoon announced his retirement on Sunday, immediately after losing in the bronze medal match of the men's 68kg event at the Tokyo Olympics.
Lee lost to Zhao Shuai of China 17-15 at Makuhari Messe Hall A in Chiba, east of Tokyo, coming up shy of his third consecutive medal at the Olympics.
Speaking to reporters only moments after the crushing loss, Lee called it quits.
"This is it for me," said the 29-year-old, who leaves with three world titles, three Asian Games gold medals, one Olympic silver and one Olympic bronze. "My career would have ended on such a hollow note (without the bronze medal match). I wanted to put on a better show for fans back home."
Lee was upset by Ulugbek Rashitov of Uzbekistan 21-19 in the round of 16, and only got into the repechage when Rashitov reached the final.
Lee won two repechage matches just to set up the bronze medal showdown against Zhao. He had little left in the tank at that point.
"I battled so hard to get to the bronze medal match and it's just crushing not to take home a medal," Lee said. "I didn't want to leave the court, knowing this was my last match."
Lee said if the Tokyo Olympics had been held last year as scheduled and not been postponed because of COVID-19, he still would have made it his last Olympics and then entered smaller events in 2021 before retiring.
The next Olympic Games are three years away, and there will be Asian Games and other international events in between for the buildup. Lee said he didn't want to have to go through that grind again, having already done that for over a decade.
"I felt that trying to prepare for another Olympics would be too difficult," said Lee, who is only the third taekwondo practitioner from South Korea to appear in three straight Olympics. "And I also wanted to make room for younger athletes to develop and compete in this weight class."
Lee said he wanted to pursue further studies and nurture a new generation of practitioners.
Lee made a splash in his senior international debut in 2010, winning the first of his three Asian Games gold medals as an 18-year-old.
The future seemed impossibly bright at the time, and the silver medal from the 2012 London Olympics only seemed to be a bump in the road to multiple gold medals at future Olympics.
It wasn't meant to be. Lee won every other major prize except for an Olympic gold.
Lee said having the Olympics delayed by a year, while losing other international competitions to COVID-19, may have damaged his sharpness. But he didn't want to dwell on any "what-if" game.
"I think the result may have been the same as tonight," Lee said with a wry smile. "I don't want to stand here and say I would have won the gold if not for the postponement."
Lee counted making the Asian Games team as a high school senior as the most memorable moment of his career, but quickly added, "Ten years from now, maybe I will remember the Tokyo Olympics more than anything."
(END)
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