FOUR is the key number as far as Flint’s Jade Jones is concerned.
Double Olympic champion Jones will spearhead Great Britain’s four-strong taekwondo challenge at the Paris Games, which will begin with Friday’s opening ceremony.
In addition, the 31-year-old athlete is set to equal Sarah Stevenson’s record of competing at four Olympic Games for Team GB’s taekwondo squad.
“This will be my fourth Olympic Games, fifth including the Youth Olympics,” said Jones, who became Britain’s first taekwondo gold medallist at London 2012 before retaining her title in Rio de Janeiro four years later.
“This one feels extra special, almost like the very first again when I was 19.
“People don’t understand how hard it is to even qualify for an Olympics, so I am super-proud and can’t wait to fight my heart out for GB and myself once again.”
Jones will be joined in Paris by Doncaster’s double world champion Bradly Sinden.
The 25-year-old’s silver at Tokyo 2020 made him only the second British man to win a medal since the sport was introduced to the Games in 2000.
European champions Caden Cunningham, 21, and Rebecca McGowan, 24, complete the squad, with both heavyweights making their Olympic debuts.
Part-time fashion model Cunningham, from Huddersfield, became European champion for the first time last month and won a gold medal at the World Taekwondo Grand Prix in June 2023.
The selection of Dumbarton’s McGowan means heartbreak for Bianca Cook, the three-time world champion who had hoped to go to Paris to claim the one major title that still eludes her.
For Cook, who had to settle for successive bronze medals in Rio and Tokyo, the news will hit close to home.
Her husband Aaron Cook, then world number one, was controversially omitted from the team for London 2012 in favour of eventual bronze medallist Lutalo Muhammad.
Jones will compete in the 57kg taekwondo competition in Paris on August 8.
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