Maicon Siqueira made history on Saturday night (20) by becoming the first Brazilian to win a medal in taekwondo at the Olympics. But the fighter born in Justinópolis, in the interior of Minas Gerais, narrowly missed out on the Games. The reason: the interest of Anderson Silva to compete in the sport in Rio.
See too
in april 2015 Anderson Silva, who was suspended from MMA, revealed his interest in competing in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. The Brazilian Taekwondo Confederation offered its full support to the former UFC champion and angered some athletes. Afterwards, Spider withdrew from the competition to focus solely on MMA and made room for Maicon's growth.
Without getting into controversy, Maicon, with a medal on his chest, said that the sport is open to any athlete and praised Anderson.
“Taekwondo is open to anyone, anyone, whoever is in MMA, Muay Thai, jiu-jitsu. Of course, when he said he was going to compete for the position, there was more visibility for the sport, there was more media, everyone turned their attention to the sport”, stated the Olympic medalist, who guarantees that an eventual fight against Anderson would be like any other.
For the first male medalist in Brazilian taekwondo, it would be another fight. “It was going to be a normal fight, he was looking for the result, I was looking for the result”, he added.
Maicon Siqueira is the only Brazilian to win a medal at the Olympics. Before him, Diogo Silva had reached fifth place at the Athens Olympics in 2004. Among women, Natália Falavigna was a bronze medalist at the Beijing Games in 2008
Comments