Her name is Tennis. She just won gold in taekwondo
Summary
The daughter of sports-mad parents, Panipak Wongpattanakit has been known as Tennis her whole life. Now she’ll be known as Thailand’s first-ever two-time Olympic champion.
Her name is Tennis. She has a sister named Bowling. Also, a brother called Baseball. And on Wednesday night in Paris, on the red clay of Roland-Garros, she became a two-time Olympic champion.
In taekwondo.
There are families who love sports so much that it might as well be their middle name. Then there are the parents of Thailand’s Panipak Wongpattanakit. They were so passionate about their favorite sports that they gave them to their kids as names.
Her father, Sirichai, competed in soccer, track and swimming, while her mother, Wantana, was an aerobics instructor. Hoping their three kids would share their fondness for athletics, they gave them nicknames: Bowling, Baseball and their youngest daughter, Tennis.
At the Grand Palais on Wednesday, Tennis triumphed in the 49 kg weight class in taekwondo to become the first Thai athlete ever to win two Olympic gold medals.
It didn’t take long for Tennis to realize she wasn’t a natural at tennis. Instead, she watched her father and her older siblings play a bunch of different sports before figuring out which one she liked.
“I did try tennis, but it wasn’t good," Tennis said. “Taekwondo is the best for me."
It turns out Bowling and Baseball didn’t excel at the sports they were named after, either. They became competitive swimmers.
Tennis was 9 when she tossed aside any hopes for a career in racket sports and began training in taekwondo. Her brother Baseball also practiced the martial art.
“I took my father’s advice that I could use this to protect myself in dangerous situations," she said.
Less than a decade later, she won her first world title at the 2015 World Taekwondo Championships. The following summer, she claimed bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Tennis became only the 10th athlete in Thailand’s history to win a gold medal. (Every previous Olympic gold medal earned by the country had been in either boxing or weightlifting.)
On Wednesday, Tennis breezed through four rounds of competition, capped off by a 2-1 victory over China’s Guo Qing in the final to win another gold medal.
Before arriving for the Paris Games, Tennis told Thai media that these Olympics would be her last major competition. After winning the gold medal in Paris, on the day before her 27th birthday, Tennis said she wasn’t having any doubts about her decision.
She revealed that she had a torn PCL knee ligament and was also dealing with pain in her ankle and hips.
Tennis, who regularly shares training videos to her 1.7 million followers on TikTok, also hinted about how she plans to spend her life after the Olympics.
“I have to retire," she said. “But I have a gym. If you want to learn [from] me, come to Thailand."
Write to Jim Chairusmi at jim.chairusmi@wsj.com
