Teenager Viviana Marton capped a day of upsets with a gold medal in the women's taekwondo welterweight division in Paris on Friday, Aug. 9, winning Hungary's first Olympic medal in the sport.

Marton dominated Serbia's Aleksandra Perisic 7-1 and 4-2 in the final at the Grand Palais, clinching victory with a kick to the body.

"I can't believe it right now, but I feel that all the hard work makes this medal," she said.

"It’s very important for me and for my country, for Hungary, because it’s the first medal in taekwondo. I hope there’ll be more taekwondo players, girls and boys."

The 18-year-old reached the title-bout after having ousted two-time Olympic bronze medalist, Ruth Gbagbi, and Belgium's 2022 world champion, Sarah Chaari, who later won bronze.

French women's world champion, Magda Wet-Henin, had her gold medal hopes crushed in the round of 16 by another teenager, 18-year-old American fighter Kristina Teachout, who also earned a bronze the division.

Tunisia's Firas Katoussi won the Olympic gold medal in the men's taekwondo welterweight division in Paris on Friday, Aug. 8, beating Iran's Mehran Barkhordari in the final bout.

Katoussi defeated Barkhordari in two rounds, scoring 4-2 and 5-1.

In testament to the sport's unpredictability, multiple top contenders failed to advance to the finals. One of which was America's top gold medal hope, CJ Nickolas, who won silver at the world championships last year, bowed out to Katoussi in a close semifinal that the Tunisian fighter won in the last minute with a kick to the body.

Nickolas' aggressive and persistent combat style produced some of the most spectacular bouts, notably against Italy's 2022 world champion, Simone Alessio, who defeated him in the final match for bronze. Denmark's Edi Hrnic was the second bronze medal winner.

The energized American fighter danced onto the mat for his first contest with a patched jacket with his name on the back draped over his shoulders.

"I put the raw version of myself out there for everybody to see. And it was a massive risk and I failed," Nickolas said.

"I gotta do some soul searching to figure out what that means. (People) don't want to just see crazy kicks. They want to see me win. And I need to figure out how I win. How do I turn these into wins?"