21 year old Caden Cunningham continued to rise to his own expectations at Paris 2024, making his way to the Olympic final to just fall short and having to settle for silver. We spoke with him before the games to get an idea of just where his mindset was before the biggest chance of his career so far.
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00:00Great Britain's Caden Cunningham has vowed to become the King of Taekwondo, despite being
00:07forced to settle for silver in the men's 80kg category at the Paris Olympics.
00:14Yeah, I'll be trying to take it in as much as I can because of the experience, but I'll
00:22be very much so there with the mindset of I am the one who is going to become Olympic
00:25champion on August the 10th.
00:28Caden continued his remarkable trajectory by beating three world champions en route
00:34to the gold medal match, which he lost narrowly to Iran's Aran Slemani.
00:40So could he predict he would get this far?
00:43Let's see what he said before the Olympic Games and whether he believed he could add
00:47to the nine Olympic medals won so far by Team GB in Taekwondo.
00:53But for myself, a lot of people there are people I've either fought before or I've seen
00:59on the circuit, and I hold myself to a high regard.
01:01I am one of the best heavyweights, so it's a stage for me to get built Taekwondo for
01:09the UK, but also earn what I've been working towards for so long and win that gold.
01:16One thing that stood out about Caden was how relaxed and at home he felt, despite it being
01:21his very first Olympic Games.
01:24There was no chance the atmosphere and pressure on his shoulders was going to get to him.
01:30So yeah, the nerves, everyone has their different level of nerves.
01:34I assumed once I started getting towards the top and I won my first title of something
01:38and I won the first big comp, that I'd settle, but it seems to have only doubled.
01:43So I assume by the Olympics I'll be just as nervous, if not, well, likely more so.
01:49But from the competition, I'm expecting and hoping it's smoothly run.
01:52There's no interruptions, there's no problems like that, and it's easy to watch for viewers
01:56at home.
01:57One hundred percent, I'm going to add to that.
02:00Bradley Sinner will be competing before me, so he's going to become the first male Olympic
02:04champion.
02:05But I won't mind taking the second one, as long as we both get that gold and what we're
02:11deserving to earn.
02:12My dad's always been into martial arts.
02:14My brother's tried it a bit as well.
02:17And then round about when I was 10, 11, I went to a children's international competition
02:21in Germany and I won that.
02:24I was deadly nervous for that because it was foreign people.
02:27I've never fought outside of Britain before.
02:29How sort of are you pleased that it's a place that's quite close to home as well for the
02:34Games and it's in a fantastic city to make your debut?
02:38Yeah, yeah.
02:39It being in Paris, it's just a little short trip over the water.
02:43The time difference isn't a lot.
02:46And yeah, I wouldn't mind wherever it is.
02:47Any competition I've been to in Paris has been quite well run and there's loads of fans
02:51and they're very vocal.
02:53So I think it'll be a good place to have a tag on a competition.