Stacey Hymer tried to hide her disappointment. Stinging from defeat in the first round of the Tokyo Olympic taekwondo tournament, emotions left the now 28-year-old dazed and confused.
Stacey Hymer was leading Canadian Skylar Park in the round of 16 bout of the women’s 57kg division, before Olympic nerves got the better of her.
Her first instinct? Get back out on the mat and give the bout another go. The second? To physically let out her frustration.
One thing she was adamant about; she would not cry.
That was, until her return to the Olympic village, where the tears came fast, as the realisation her Olympic dream was over set in.
“As soon as you finish fighting and you've lost, you want to get back out there,” Stacey says.
“There is a feeling of, ‘I need to do this again’. You have so much adrenaline and energy to go back out there. It’s tough.”
“I was just sitting there, I didn't care what I looked like, what I was doing, I was just being me’, she says, ‘I'm just going to sit back and do whatever I want. I fought hard. I'm sad right now. I don't really care what happens after this.”
It’s a frank admission from Hymer, who believes it is important for athletes to talk about disappointment and failure.
“I'm sure other athletes can agree once you've lost you, you ain't the prettiest,” she says.
“Everyone can become a little bit of a sore loser here and there. It happens and that's just a way of life sometimes; the way of coping with such a big loss.”
Stacey is using that disappointment to fuel her second Olympic appearance in Paris.
She is in form. Stacey won the 2023 Pacific Games in the Solomon Islands, the Australian National Championships and the Australia Presidents Cup. She took silver at the Australian Open, the Kimunyong Cup in South Korea and bronze at the Korea Open.
These results give her confidence going into her second Olympics. She believes a medal is a possibility given the strong team environment in Australian taekwondo.
“The hard work and effort is being put in every single day,” she says.
“I'm lucky and happy with the team environment; they're a big driver as well into my enjoyment and success. A medal in Paris is looking bright, we’ve just got to stay positive.”
Whatever the result, Stacey will create history as the first Australian female to compete in two Olympics in the women’s featherweight category.
The women’s 57kg division will compete at the Grand Palais on 8 August from 5.10pm (AEST).
This article was originally written for The Australian Olympic Team. You can read the published version here
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