by It was one of the most striking images of the Tokyo Olympics, at least from Britain’s perspective: Bianca Cook (or Walkden, as she was then) crying her eyes out in the Makuhari Messe Hall after a shocking first-round defeat in the taekwondo. It wasn’t even her defeat. Cook was reacting to her housemate and best friend Jade Jones’ surprise at the hands of Kimia Alizadeh, a former Iranian athlete competing under the refugee team’s white flag.
Jones’ defeat heralded an unfortunate Games for these two Taekwondo GB pioneers who had dominated their respective weight classes for most of the decade leading up to Tokyo.
Jones, who had won gold in London and Rio, was aiming to become the first taekwondo fighter to win three titles on the biggest stage of them all.
Meanwhile, Cook had already suffered Olympic heartbreak once when he narrowly missed making the gold medal match at Rio 2016. Tokyo would prove even more painful, a last-gasp loss to Korea’s Lee Da-bin of the South in the +67 kg semifinals. final.
Although she won a second bronze medal to go with her first in Rio, she was inconsolable afterwards and admitted she felt “dead inside.”
“Obviously, now I sit back and see that I have two Olympic bronze medals,” Cook says of those surreal Tokyo Games, held in almost empty stadiums amid the chaos of Covid. “It is still an achievement. I can see that. But I’ve always been open about my ambitions. I’m in this to win it. My life is all or nothing. And I was in Tokyo for the gold…”
Fortunately, he has one more chance to realize his dream. Paris 2024 is on the horizon and Cook, needless to say, is desperate for a third time’s charm next year.
He knows that this time he is in the last chance room. At 32, the Liverpool woman, who last year married her long-term partner, the British-born Moldovan taekwondo player Aaron Cook, jokes that she is “getting along well”.
“The body is starting to break down a little bit,” he says, laughing. “I still have the ability to be where I need to be for the Olympics. But I’ve had a tough last six months. I had very serious problems with my knee and in the end I had to have surgery. I just got back now. But I’m going to give everything I have. One last dance and hopefully you’ll see me in Paris winning that gold.”
It would be a story if I could do it. Cook already underwent two ACL reconstructions before Tokyo. She also experienced a host of vicarious traumas with her then-boyfriend Aaron, who endured a long and ultimately fruitless battle to achieve Olympic glory, a journey that began to go sideways when he was controversially excluded from Great Britain’s team for the 2012 Olympics championships. from London despite being ranked number one in the world in the -80kg division. He then represented the Isle of Man and then Moldova as he desperately sought a path to glory. But it was all in vain.
“He’s retired now,” Cook says. “He’s actually the national coach of Saudi Arabia, so he comes and goes to Riyadh a lot, which gives me the chance to live with Jade again!”
‘This is my last dance. My one and all. And I will give him my soul’
Cook only moved out of Jones’ flat and moved in with her husband after they married in Italy last year, a “magical day” attended by about half of the GB team.
Later she sends me a photo of her in her wedding dress, facing her new husband. But she assures me that she and Jones, two years her junior but for whom Paris will also likely be her last shot at glory, are still “joined at the hip.”
“Oh, definitely. Aaron and I are only 10 minutes away, so I’m still at Jade’s house all the time! She can’t get rid of me. When Aaron was away recently, I think I slept at Jade’s house for about two weeks straight. So, we are always there for each other. And we always will be. We are not just teammates. Now we are family. She was one of my bridesmaids.
“When we are not together (for example, she is training in Croatia at the moment), I miss her every day. But we’re still together talking on the phone all the time, talking about training, pushing each other to make sure we put in a great final race and see if we can both come away with gold.”
Their combined impact on GB Taekwondo cannot be underestimated. Beth Munro, a para-wrestler who won silver in Tokyo and will also go for gold in Paris next year, says both Cook and Jones are generous with their time and knowledge.
“As a Liverpool team-mate, I get on very well with Bianca,” says Munro, the 30-year-old who was born without part of her left arm and was discovered by Disability Sports Wales in her twenties, having grown up playing capable. body sport with her twin sister Faye. “She is a lovely person and she helps all the younger players. When she is on the platforms, you can see how interested she is, passing on her knowledge.
“In fact, I think as a team we are in great shape. Now we have young people who are hot on their heels. Once the big names have advanced, I believe they will be able to reach the same heights as them.”
How high will those heights ultimately be? We’re about to find out. Cook is set to return from surgery at the World Taekwondo Grand Prix final, which this year will take place “home” in Manchester, early next month. For once, he’s not putting too much pressure on himself.
“If I’m honest, I’ll be a little rusty,” she says. “Obviously the ultimate goal is Paris, and as long as I’m 100 percent on the Paris goal, that’s the main goal. But that doesn’t mean I can’t go out there and give it everything I’ve got and get the job done. “I really want to be part of the best of the best again.”
After that, he has his head down and blinders on. Paris awaits. Even the honeymoon had to be postponed until the serious business was over. “We haven’t planned anything, but I would love to go on safari,” Cook says. “That’s on my wish list. But it is quite expensive. If any vacation agents would like to sponsor me, please get in touch! But yes, that can wait.
“This is my last dance. My one and all. And I will give him my soul. I want to end up where I want to be: on the top step. Like I said before, I’m an all or nothing person, so I’m going to give it my all. I hope this last dance is the fairy tale I have dreamed of.”
