This weekend, 18-year-old Anastasija Zolotic [1] became the first American to win gold in women's taekwondo, defeating her opponent (ROC's Tatiana Minina [2]) with a score of 25 to 17 at the 2021 Olympics [3] in Tokyo. Enthusiastically announcing the historic moment was taekwondo analyst [4] Sherman M Nelson Jr. [5] Nelson Jr. has been a part of the taekwondo world for over a decade — his experience includes being the assistant national team coach for USA Taekwondo [6] and VP of taekwondo development and branding [7].

As time counted down during the match, Nelson Jr. said "we are under 10 seconds and I'm losing it slowly and surely because in under two seconds [Team USA will] have the first women gold medal in Olympic history." He made it clear that Zolotic's win for Team USA was years in the making as he passionately said "this is what we've been waiting for, working for, dreaming about," then exclaiming "I can't take it!" three times while Zolotic and her coach cheered. His excitement had taekwondo fans and novices alike equally ecstatic about her win.

New to taekwondo? Check out the World Taekwondo Demonstration Team [8] on America's got talent to see just a slice of the power taekwondo brings to any stage.