On April 6, it appeared that her greatest dream had been realised. Saffron Tambyrajah, a Melbourne-based elite Taekwondo athlete, had won a gold medal in the -49kg category of the Oceania Olympic qualifying tournament in Honaira, Solomon Islands, the requisite for a ticket to Paris.
She and three other Australians— Stacey Hymer (women’s -57kg), Leon Sejranovic (men’s -80kg) and Bailey Lewis (men’s -58kg)— had secured the four Olympic quota places available to the Oceania region.
But whilst her three teammates competed in the Olympic tournament from August 7 to 9, Tambyrajah remained at home, the ticket to Paris never materialising.
Despite her regional win satisfying one of five potential pathways to Paris 2024, Tambyrajah intuitively felt something was amiss when an administrative complication caused many of her rivals at the qualifying event to be absent.
The Oceania Taekwondo Union has confirmed that at least three refugee athletes were barred from their flight from Brisbane to the Solomon Islands to compete for the Olympic spot, having failed to secure visitor visas.
“It was heartbreaking for them, because they deserved to have a shot at qualifying for the Olympics, but they weren’t even allowed to enter the country to be given that opportunity,” Tambyrajah said.
As a result, the -49kg category was reduced to two athletes, or one bout, in contrast to the two bouts that competitors in other weight categories completed.
But with no cancellation of the qualifying event, Tambyrajah’s win was initially considered valid, with Australia’s securing of four quota places reported widely amongst the sporting community, including through the Olympics’ own press channels.
“It wasn’t until maybe like a week or two later, when the IOC [International Olympic Committee] was sending out quota spots [that we knew something was wrong],” Tambyrajah said.
“We didn’t get one for my division. That’s when the coaches were like… ‘this is going to be a bit of an ordeal’.”
Tambyrah was devastated by the news she had not been allocated an Olympic place, but persisted in her training whilst Australian Taekwondo appealed on her behalf with the Court of Arbritation for Sport (CAS). Her coaches also rallied around her in support.
“I didn’t miss a single training session, even if that meant I was coming to training, bawling my eyes out about the whole situation.
“I was still there, training as if I were going to the Games.”
Both the CAS and World Taekwondo could not be reached for comment, but communications from Australian Taekwondo in July have confirmed that World Taekwondo had decided not to grant Oceania a quota for the women’s -49kg division due to an insufficient number of competitors at the regional qualifier.
With the appeal to CAS failing, Tambyrajah’s place was eventually reallocated to Morrocan fighter Oumaima El Bouchti, who was ultimately eliminated in the repechage round at the Games.
“It’s just disappointing because it just seems like it’s an admin error,” Tambyrajah says.
“I never really had that one moment where I was just happy and proud that I had made it.”
“It was straight away like, ‘No, I feel like I’ve failed’.”
While Tambyrajah’s journey to the Olympics hit a tragic and unexpected roadblock, it has overall been anything but a failure.
Hailing from Perth, originally, Tambyrajah took up the sport aged 7 after initially being inspired by her father and brother.
“I remember looking at them being like, ‘Oh, my God, that’s a really cool uniform… maybe I’ll just join up just for fun.
“Fast forward 10 years, and I was the only one still doing it.”
With her natural stamina and flexibility standing out to her coaches, Tambyrajah was encouraged to expand her skillset beyond pattern-based (poomsae) training, taking on the head-to-head sparring (kyorugi) discipline of the sport.
Tambyrajah’s destiny as a world-class athlete naturally manifested over the years, with a career-high ranking of 12th in the world underpinned by a variety of regional and international wins.
Recognised for her achievements and future potential, Tambyrajah was selected for the inaugural 2018 intake at the Victorian Institute of Sport’s high performance hub, which triggered her courageous solo move across the country to Melbourne, aged 18.
“If you work hard, and you commit to doing whatever it is you’re doing, it’s so achievable,” Tambyrajah said.
“But you just have to be prepared to make sacrifices or take chances that move you in the direction of what you want.”
As a three-time Oceania champion, with two (senior) World Championship appearances under her belt, and a recent triumph as champion of the 2023 Polish Open, Tambyrajah knows she is an Olympic calibre athlete.
But that provided little comfort as she was forced to watch the Olympic contest from home, her potential on hold and thoughts clouded by what ifs.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to really accept what’s happened.” Tambyrajah says.
Selectively applied rules and questions of regional discrimination
World Taekwondo’s official rules state that a minimum of four athletes must compete in the respective weight divisions of a regional qualifier for the Olympic quota to be granted.
Despite this, the decision to revoke Tambyrajah’s quota place came as a surprise, given that the rule had never been enforced since the Oceania Olympic Qualification event for Taekwondo began running in 2008.
Participation data for the event shows that the Oceania region’s athletes have consistently earned spots in the Olympics despite competing in weight divisions containing less than four competitors.
Since 2008, Tambyrajah’s weight division has never been contested by more than two athletes. Yet in each of the previous editions, aside from a disqualification for missing the weight limit, the qualifiers’ gold medallist made the Olympic Games.
A total of seven athletes, both male and female, have also advanced to the Olympics uncontested during this period.
Based on this precedent, John Kotsifas, Lawyer and President of the Oceania Taekwondo Union, said that the Oceania Taekwondo community was shocked and disappointed at the outcome for Tambyrajah.
“It is a terrible result not only for the Australian athlete but also for the entire Oceania region which was only permitted to qualify 7 rather than 8 athletes for Paris.
“Already, the Oceania region is allowed half of the quota places afforded to other global regions.
“Oceania has been treated differently for many years because in the Oceania region we only have 19 countries whereas in Europe, Pan America, Asia and Africa, these continents have 50 or more countries, so you can see that the pool of eligible athletes is far lower in Oceania as compared to the other continents where they have thousands of eligible athletes,” Kotsifas explained.
Recognising the importance of equal opportunity at the Games, Kotsifas found it unclear why World Taekwondo chose this Olympic cycle to enforce its attendance quotas for the first time.
“No athlete has ever been excluded from Olympic selection merely because there were less than 4 athletes competing,” said Kotsifas.
“The assumption has been that our International Federation [World Taekwondo] … recognises the importance of having Oceania qualify its full contingent of 8 athletes every year so it has allowed athletes to qualify even where there have been less than 4 competing.”
Kotsifas highlighted that finding competition for Australia’s Taekwondo athletes at the qualifiers has been an issue for some time, with the majority of their regional rivals entering other weight divisions to improve their chances of qualification.
“Because each country can only enter two male and two female athletes at our selection event, it follows that because of Australia’s dominance and technical superiority, the other Pacific nations avoid the weight categories that Australia has entered athletes in because they have almost no chance of defeating the Australian athletes.
“This results in most Australian athletes [being] without any athlete to compete against as nations have entered their athletes in alternate weight classes.”
As the data below shows, if World Taekwondo had enforced this participation quota in the Oceania Qualifiers for the 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020 Olympics, not a single female athlete from the Oceania region would have been given the opportunity to compete at the Games. Neither would 11 out of the 16 male athletes that qualified.
“[This issue] will continue again in 2028 and 2032 in future Olympic selections,” Kotsifas said.
This raises questions as to whether more of Australia’s Olympic hopefuls will be denied the opportunity to qualify for reasons outside of their control.
In response to Tambyrajah’s case, the Oceania Taekwondo Union will continue to advocate for changes to policy, advising World Taekwondo to officially recognise the low numbers of athletes in the Oceania region and make special provisions in its competition rules that recognise the special and unique circumstances that prevail in Oceania.
Source: Oceania Taekwondo Union
*Both athletes in the women’s -49kg missed weight in the Tokyo (2020) qualifier, hence the recording of 0 above
Tambyrajah moves forward with renewed determination
Despite her initial heartbreak, Tambyrajah is determined to remain proud that she did everything in her power to make it to Paris, and technically succeeded in her goal, even if not officially recognised.
Winding back her university studies part-time to focus on Taekwondo training at least two times a day during the week, with added exercise sessions during weekends to make weight in the lightest competition category, she certainly has reached a level of discipline and fitness unimaginable to the everyday Australian.
“It’s tough. I definitely put my body on the line during our qualification period,” Tambyrajah said.
“But, honestly, it was a choice, a choice to do everything that I had to put myself in the best position to be selected for the Olympic Games.”
Confronting the precariousness of the Olympic dream head-on, Tambyrajah was also pushed psychologically to a whole new level.
“When all of this stuff happened, I felt so much of it on me. I’m so used to blaming myself when things go wrong because Taekwondo is an individual sport.
“Now, I know that it’s not my fault… it goes so much further beyond what I can control.
“I achieved my goal of winning the Olympic qualification event, with the hopes of going to the Olympics… it’s just crazy to think that my dream and my future was in the hands of other people.”
Although she would have loved to be chasing Olympic glory in Paris, Tambyrajah has found her fighting spirit to have grown ten-fold from the sideline, sights set on a comeback at the Taekwondo World Championships in 2025.
“I feel like this whole situation, I’ve learnt a lot about myself as a person and my character,” Tambyrajah said.
“I always knew that … I’ve had a strong mind… I’m always training hard.
“But when you’re in a situation so uncertain like this, and you’re still able to rock up to training every single day, even when there’s cameras that are at training that are not for you… they’re for all the other Olympians.
“[To] hold this heavy feeling, and still be at training and still be physically preparing for the pinnacle of sport… I’ve learned a lot about myself and how tough I actually am as a person.”
Despite her Olympic ambitions being suspended for another four years, Tambyrajah’s immediate future still shines bright, as she continues on the road to completing a Bachelor of Science at the esteemed University of Melbourne, ranked 13th in the world in the QS World Rankings.
Whilst she is still deciding upon a specific occupation, she noted that she is keen for her career to revolve around the healthcare and sports sectors, with pathways such as sports medicine or physiotherapy open to her.
“As long as I’m working with athletes, I’ll be happy”, Tambyrajah said.
