PARIS, France — The day has arrived -- CJ Nickolas made his Olympic debut for the United States.
Nickolas faced Farzad Mansouri with the Refugee Olympic Team in a round of 16 bout in the men’s taekwondo -80kg competition on Friday. Nickolas won his bout 2-0. He had scores of 10-7 and 3-1 in the two rounds. He then defeated Burkina Faso's Faysal Sawadogo 2-0 in the quarterfinal with scores of 7-5 and 10-9.
Nickolas lost to Tunisian athlete Firas Katoussi in the semifinal Friday morning, but advanced to one of the two bronze medal matches to face the winner of a repechage match, in line with Olympic rules for taekwondo. Nickolas was defeated by Italy's Simone Alessio 3-3 and 2-1 in the bronze medal match. Alessio, the reigning world champion, was upset in the quarterfinals.
Nickolas trains in Charlotte with the Team USA taekwondo team. He was the No. 2 ranked fighter in the world in his weight class. The ranking qualified him for the Paris Olympics.
The Brentwood, California native has won gold medals in the Pan American Championships and bronze medals in the World Taekwondo Grand Prix.
Mansouri competes for the Refugee Olympic Team, which represents 10 athletes at the Paris Olympics. The group won its first-ever medal with a boxing bronze from Cindy Ngamba, who is from Cameroon. Mansouri is from Afghanistan and competed for the nation at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics but later fled the country.
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