Who is Sol Gum Pak? The North Korean wrestler who defeated Nisha Dahiya in the Paris Olympics 2024
Democratic People's Republic of Korea's women wrestler Sol Gum Pak caught the limelight on Monday, August 5, after defeating India’s Nisha Dahiya in the women’s 68 kg weight division quarter-final bout. As a result, she made the cut for the semi-final.
Earlier in the Senior Asian Olympic Qualifier Tournament in April 2024 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, 18-year-old Sol Gum Pak earned the Paris Olympics 2024 quota after bagging two wins and a loss in the round-robin competition.
Interestingly, in the first round of the Olympic Qualifier, Nisha Dahiya stunned Sol Gum by 8-3. However, Sol Gum made a strong comeback to bag wins over Kyrgyzstan’s Meerim Zhumanazarova by 3-1 and Kazakhstan’s Yelena Shalygina 10-0 to earn her Paris 2024 qualification.
Sol Gum Pak made her Olympic debut in style
Making her Olympic debut at the Paris Olympics 2024, Sol Gum Pak started off her Games journey in the Round of 16 bout against Moldova wrestler Irina Ringaci. In the first period, Gum took a 4-2 lead and continued her domination in the second period, taking the lead to 10-6 to win the contest via victory by points.
In the quarter-final bout, she took on India’s U23 World Championships bronze medallist wrestler Nisha Dahiya, who reached the quarters after defeating Tetiana Rizhko from Ukraine by 6-4 in the Round of 16.
In the quarter-final contest, Nisha took an 8-1 lead and was all set to advance to the semi-final. However, the Indian wrestler injured her hand and arm, which cost her the match badly as Sol turned things upside down.
In the second period, Nisha was comfortably leading with 8-1. However, three injury breaks from Nisha propelled Sol Gum to score nine quick points in succession in the final minute to win the contest by 10-8 and storm into the semi-final.
However, Sol Gum Pak's gold medal dream turned out to be short-lived as she suffered a humiliating defeat against Amit Elor from the USA by 0-10 via technical superiority in the semi-final
Elor started off the encounter with 10 quick points with Sol not accumulating any points. Nevertheless, she will stand a chance to win a medal in the bronze medal bout.