Aaron Cook (taekwondo) - 2008 Summer Olympics

2008 Summer Olympics

See also: Taekwondo at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's 80 kg#Tournament results

In his Olympic debut Cook defeated Anju Jason representing the Marshall Islands. The match finished 7–0 in favour of Cook. The second match was against a higher class of competitor, but he defeated Carlos Vasquez of Venezuela 5–2. In the semi-finals Cook lost again 6–5 to Sarmiento.

After defeat in the semi finals this placed Cook in the bronze medal match of the repechage against Zhu Guo of China. Cook lost the match 4–1. He was baffled that a protest was not lodged against the result by his supporting team: "I am so gutted. I came so close. I thought the scoring was absolutely horrendous. I don't know what the judges were looking at, they must have been looking in the crowd. 'I never tried so much in a match, and it still wasn't enough, and then I didn't know what I had to do. I am miles better than that guy. The crowd didn't affect me, but it must have affected the scoring. 'I can't believe the scoring. Words can't explain how absolutely gutted I am to come so close to a medal. I had the right tactics. I'd have been five to six points ahead in any other taekwondo fight."