Sarah Stevenson’s hopes of gold were dashed in the preliminary rounds of the taekwondo this morning following a 5-1 defeat to American Paige McPherson.
Stevenson, the world champion in the -67kg division and a bronze medallist from Beijing, endured a tough build-up to the Games after undergoing knee surgery six months ago.
There were also personal tragedies with her father Roy dying from a brain tumour last July while her mother Diana passed away three months later following a battle from cancer.
Those personal losses helped put the McPherson defeat into perspective. “This is meant to be fun,” she said. “This is the Olympics not a matter of life and death. You should be here to have fun.”
Stevenson was on the backfoot from the off today falling three points behind following a head shot by McPherson.
That deficit was up to five points by the end of round two and, although she pegged back a point in the last two-minute encounter, the clock ticked down without her able to make any real inroads.
Following her battle to get fit after her injury, she said: “I wanted to come back to my best and have no regrets. I didn’t know how I was going to be. I wanted to come here to do my best. Maybe I was not as good as I was before everything that happened to me. I did my best under the circumstances. I’m happy.”
Stevenson could still fight for a bronze medal through the repechage format but only if McPherson makes it to the final.
The 29-year-old Briton, with four Olympic appearances to her name, said it was too early to decide on her future but added: “I’ll think about where my future lies whether that’s in taekwondo or not.”
There was better news for Lutalo Muhammad in the men’s -80kg preliminaries as he produced a superb final round to defeat Farkhod Negmatov, of Tajikistan, to book his place in the quarter‑finals this afternoon.
