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Bradly Sinden is happy to share his grief over Paris with his mother

The taekwondo star agonisingly missed out on a medal last month when a knee injury dashed his dreams of gold and forced him to withdraw from his bronze medal challenge.

After the fight, Sinden broke down in tears as his hopes of another silver medal were dashed, but the Stainforth fighter took comfort in the fact that his mother Sheryl was on the sidelines comforting him.

Sinden now has to decide whether to spend another four years searching for the elusive gold at LA 2028. But even though he came home empty-handed, he will always have special memories of Paris.

“I said after Tokyo that I was definitely aiming for gold in Paris,” he said. “At the moment the weight is harder to reach, so I have to think about it.”

“I'm pretty exhausted, a lot of competitions have been combined. It's been a tougher schedule with a lot of ups and downs. Right now I just need to get my body back in shape.

“Even though Paris didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to, I think having my mother there helped me a lot.

“I wasn't in a good shape after losing in the semi-finals because I couldn't make it because of my injury. I felt cheated. I only had to get through two more fights, couldn't I just keep going?

“Mom was there to cry on my heartstrings. She was just proud of me. I was able to cry with them and get it over with as quickly as possible. They are always proud of you, no matter what.

“How many people can say, 'My son is an Olympian'? Having everyone there was more than I could have asked for.”

Sinden will need some time to process the defeat in Paris, but he revealed that opening up to friends, family and others was an important part of his process as a professional athlete.

Sinden was speaking on SportsAid Live, where he offered advice and insight to some of the country's next athletes and revealed the importance of dealing with disappointment, having already recovered from narrowly missing out on an Olympic gold medal in Tokyo and being crowned world champion two years later.

“I can't remember the last time I cried until then,” he said. “It was the first time in a long time that I cried out of grief. It just kept coming, but having my family there helped me.

“It's very difficult to take. I don't mind losing if I'm doing my best and the better man wins that day. But to have that opportunity taken away from me was heartbreaking. But having my family there helped me deal with it. I have the support network around me that I need to get through it.”

“We are only meant to handle so much. Taekwondo, or sport in general, can be the highest of highs or the lowest of lows.

“You have to let it out. Maybe you'll never cry, but maybe crying is the best thing for you. For me, it's enough to talk to people and show them that it's not the end for me. Taekwondo is my life now, but at some point it will only be a very small part of it. It will be a big part of what made me who I am, but everything goes on.”

SportsAid Live, hosted by Marsh McLennan, brought together over 40 athletes and their families from more than 20 different sports to get to know each other and share their experiences and knowledge, while also benefitting from mentoring and valuable workshops in areas such as mental health, sleep, performance, wellbeing and building your brand.

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