What does an elite athlete do after they’ve accomplished a life-long goal of winning an Olympic medal? Well, if you’re Winnipeg’s Skylar Park, Team Canada’s bronze medal winning athlete in the women’s 57 kg taekwondo event at the Paris 2024 Games, you go to McDonald’s. “People think the day of is a lot more glamorous than it is, but our event finished around 11 p.m., then we went straight to anti-doping and were all just sitting in a room waiting to pee in a cup, then we went to a press conference,” the 25-year-old says, adding it was probably after midnight when she actually walked away from the scenic Grand Palais, where the competition was held. “My family was at the Champs-Élysées waiting, and there was a McDonald’s across the street, so we went there for dinner with my medal around my neck. I got a McChicken and a McFlurry—and McDonald’s in Paris is just better—and there was a beautiful patio. People were coming up to me like, ‘Why are you here?’ and asking to take pictures with my medal.”

Paris 2024 was Park’s second time at the Olympic Games (she made her debut in Tokyo), and the first time she’s coming home with a coveted medal. Having started training in the sport when she was still in diapers at her family’s taekwondo academy (her dad is also her coach), it’s something she’s dreamed about her whole life. But Park isn’t content to stop there. Now back home from Paris, the athlete is more energized than ever, and ready to help grow her sport while finding new ways to support Canadian athletes beyond the Olympics.

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Going to the Olympics and winning a medal is a goal many competitive athletes work toward. What is going through your head when you’re actually there and that goal is on the line?

“It’s very different to be at the Olympics. I mean we have World Championships, we have the Pan Am Games, we’re on the circuit constantly competing, but those events are all to get points to go to the Games. So when you’re at the Games, there’s an extra level of pressure. I talked about it a lot after Tokyo—I didn’t know how to deal with that pressure and I struggled with that a lot, and that prevented me from performing up to my potential, like what I had done in training and in competition prior to that event. I worked a lot on those mental pieces coming into Paris to be ready for all those emotions.

“The main thing for me is my connection with my Dad. I think they said on the broadcast ‘She’s like a robot,’ and that’s kind of how we operate. He tells me what to do, and I execute it. It [was about] having that connection super dialed in, trying to focus on the process. A big thing was also thinking about how much I love what I’m doing—once that pressure is there, you can forget about that, then you’re just frozen in the pressure and the expectations. But I love doing this, I’m good at it and it’s fun, and when I think about that, I tend to be more free and fight better.”

Obviously, there’s always something to find to work towards, but do you feel like that pressure has been lifted now that you have an Olympic medal? Or are you the type of person who just barrels toward the next goal?

“I think it [has lifted] for sure. My whole life, I knew and I’ve been told what I’m capable of—being successful in the sport and standing on top of that podium. It’s an honour to be recognized as someone who has the potential to do that. Last year was the first time I won a major event, a Grand Prix, and so I think that lifted a huge weight off of me. I was always so close to the top of a podium—I had like seven bronze medals, I’d be in the finals and fall short, or I’d be in the quarterfinals and lose to the person who ended up winning. I was always so close. I felt like there was a part of me that was like, ‘Maybe these people don’t know what they’re talking about, maybe I can’t reach the top.’ Once you fall short so many times, the doubt just gets bigger and bigger. It took a long time for me to fully believe I could do it. Then I did last year, and I was like ‘I do belong at the top, I can do it, I am capable.’ That momentum carried me forward. Obviously the goal was the top of the podium again in Paris, but the Korean girl [gold medal winner Kim Yu-jin] had an exceptional day. That’s what the Olympics are about, people rising to the occasion, and she really did.”

Team Canada had an amazing Olympics, and a big story was that women athletes were really crucial to that success. You had talked about wanting to use these Games and the excitement and buzz surrounding them to keep the momentum going. How can we support athletes in these more niche sports when the Olympics aren’t on TV?

“That’s the tough part with sports, especially my sport, which is a smaller sport like a lot of the Olympic sports. If you’re not in a professional sport that gets air time and exposure all year, it’s hard. We only have our moment once every four years. Us athletes work so hard and there’s so much that goes into our journeys to lead up to that one moment, then there’s such a come down. It’s cool that we’re being highlighted [now] and that athletes from so many different sports [had success]—we all possess such different qualities and traits within these sports and as individuals, and I think we have to use that to inspire the next generation. It’s something that’s super important to me to do with the platform I have, especially right now while that platform is elevated. I’ve seen the impact already coming home—it’s so cool to see young girls, but also boys and older people, come up to congratulate me and say they want to go to the Olympics. That shouldn’t be exclusive to a two-week period every four years.

“I’m planning with my team to go to schools and host events. Before the Olympics, I hosted an event where over 300 girls and women came to my academy here in Winnipeg, and we taught them taekwondo and I shared a little bit of my journey hoping to inspire and empower them. I’ve seen through my sport, specifically as it’s a martial art, that it can be so empowering; [you learn] discipline, respect, there’s the confidence piece that’s huge. And [you can find that] in sport in general as well.”

In what other ways are you trying to grow your own sport?

“Taekwondo is not a huge sport in Canada, but I try to do what I can on social media by sharing it and teaching others what it’s about. Hosting events is definitely something I hope to do more of. Martial arts are so much fun and they’re kind of easy to do because you can do them anywhere. You don’t need much equipment. A lot of people are kind of scared of them, but they’re very safe when practiced responsibly. I want to get out into the community, go to schools and share not only my sport, but the values and principles of sport in general to keep young people in sports and inspire them to dream big in whatever it is they choose to do in life.”

 

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Women, of course, have been participating in sports forever. But it does feel like we’re in this amazing moment where women’s sport in general is growing in Canada so much, especially with the success of the PWHL and the WNBA coming to Toronto next year. These are more mainstream sports, but what do you think it is about this particular moment that the momentum is finally there?

“The most exciting part about this time right now is what’s happening in pro women’s sports—it’s amazing. And we just saw the amateur athletes at the Olympics do incredible things and put their names on the map and raising Canada’s medal count. I mean, I love the male athletes on our team, but we’re outperforming them and getting those medals for Canada. I teach at my family’s taekwondo school and you can see the excitement the young girls have and the dreams they have; they’re so much bigger and bolder. I think they’re feeling the momentum, as well as the older athletes who are immersed in it. They’re excited about the future and can see so many more possibilities.”

I wrote a story earlier this year about how hockey players in the PWHL are using fashion to grow their league and their personal platforms. You wear a uniform when you’re competing, but is this something you also consider?

“I’m actually good friends with [PWHL hockey player] Natalie Spooner, and I was chatting with her a while ago and she was talking about their game-day outfits. She was like, ‘You need to do this.’ But I was like, ‘I show up to events at 7 a.m. and I’m not going to show up in a ball gown.’ I would love to do it, but it doesn’t make sense logistically. But we have weigh-ins the day before, so I try to show up in a cool outfit—I’m an Adidas athlete, so it’s usually a cool Adidas ‘fit.

“I think the culture of the sport is changing a lot. Taekwondo is a combat sport, so, for so long, people have thought you can’t be fashionable and wear makeup—you have to be tough and rough. That’s something I thought too, but my thoughts on that have definitely changed a lot and now I’m trying to bring that piece into the sport. Why can’t we dress up and show up in a cool outfit? Sometimes I’ll be at an event where I’m not competing and I’ll show up in a dress—and no one else is wearing a dress in that whole gymnasium. I am trying to change the culture a bit, and I’m also just doing it for myself. It’s how I feel comfortable, it’s how I feel confident. I’ve been starting to wear makeup [at competitions] because why can’t I look good and feel good about myself while competing? So there’s a shift happening within myself, and if that shift can happen within the sport, it would be super cool.”

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