Winning 4 medals in one day, Thailand jumps up the Olympic rankings

Before August 7, the Thai sports delegation only won 1 silver medal at the 2024 Olympics, won by athlete Kunlavut Vitidsarn in men's singles badminton. However, just yesterday, the athletes from the Land of the Golden Temple made a miraculous step forward when they won 4 medals.

Panipak Wongpattanakit is the first Southeast Asian athlete to successfully defend an Olympic gold medal (Photo: Getty).

The most notable is the gold medal of athlete Panipak Wongpattanakit in the women's 49kg taekwondo competition. She defeated Qing Guo (China) after 3 rounds with a score of 2-1. The scores of the rounds were 6-3; 2-3; 6-2 respectively. This is the first gold medal of Thai sports at the 2024 Olympics. Notably, Panipak Wongpattanakit won a gold medal in the women's 49kg competition at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. According to statistics, Panipak Wongpattanakit is the first Southeast Asian athlete to successfully defend an Olympic gold medal. Previously, Malaysian tennis player Lee Chong Wei had reached the Olympic finals 3 times in a row in badminton but had not won any of them. In addition, Thailand also had a silver medal from athlete Silachai Theerapong in the men's 61kg weightlifting event. The Thai athlete competed with Trinh Van Vinh of Vietnam in this weight class. Thailand also won 2 bronze medals from Surodchana Khambao in the women's 49kg weightlifting event and Janjaem Suwannapheng in boxing.

Silachai Theerapong won a silver medal in weightlifting (Photo: Getty).

Notably, by winning 1 gold medal, 1 silver medal, 2 bronze medals in one day, the Thai sports delegation jumped from 58th place in the medal table to 31st place. In Southeast Asia alone, Thailand has the second best performance after the Philippines. This sports delegation won 2 gold medals and 2 bronze medals at the Olympics. Sports delegations such as Malaysia (2 bronze medals), Indonesia (1 bronze medal) are other Southeast Asian sports delegations that won medals at the 2024 Olympics. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese sports delegation is almost empty-handed in this tournament. Today, athlete Nguyen Thi Huong will compete in the qualifying round of the women's single canoeing C1-200m event at 3:30 p.m.