Sajad Ganjzadeh of Iran won the gold medal in the +75kg men’s karate competition at the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday, which would typically be a high point that features quite the celebration on the mat. However, there was no fanfare to Ganjzadeh’s win, as he earned the gold medal while unconscious on the mat after getting knocked out by Tareg Hamedi of Saudi Arabia with a kick to the head.
The dude who got knocked out won the match and the gold, because knocking someone out is illegal in karate… pic.twitter.com/1DLfYUQazI
— Richard Mann (@RichardAMann) August 7, 2021
In karate, unlike most every other combat sport, the goal is to show control by hitting your opponent, but not with too much force. As such, after review, the referees determined Hamedi’s high kick to Ganjzadeh was worthy of a disqualification and the man who was stretchered off the mat won gold, while the man who stood triumphant over him was relegated to the silver medal. Eventually, both men would return to the medal ceremony, Ganjzadeh able to walk out there under his own power and then speak to reporters, where he expressed an understandable feeling of mixed emotions, via Reuters.
“I’m happy about the gold medal but I’m sad that I had to win it like this,” Ganjzadeh told a news conference.
It is an incredible image to have of Ganjzadeh flat on his back, unconscious as the final act of a gold medal winning performance, but it’s a gold medal all the same and that’ll help ease the physical pain of that KO.
