With heart, humanity and a killer kick, C.J. Nickolas eyes men’s taekwondo gold
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By Curtis Bunn, NBC News
On the mat, the No. 2 fighter in the world in his weight class sheds his lighthearted nature to embody an intense attacker. “He becomes this other person in the ring,” his mother says.
![](https://www.abhmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Nickolas_CJ_2022_1440x810_Updated-800x450.jpg)
C.J. Nickolas hardly looks like one of the most lethal fighters in the world. He’s wearing baggy jeans covered in large colorful patches with pink socks and carrying a yellow Pikachu backpack. His brilliant smile illuminates like the New York City skyline behind him.
And yet there he is, at 22, the U.S.’ best chance at a gold medal at the Paris Olympic Games in taekwondo, a Korean martial art in which fighters use mostly their feet and hands.
He arrives in the evening, before sunset, at 30 Rockefeller Plaza after a full day of media obligations, but, lean and 6-foot-1, he is a tower of energy. He readily switches into his U.S. fight gear to display his signature — and devastating — soaring midair double kick, a maneuver that delivers a blow to his opponent while he is in flight and a second strike as his body is contorted and suspended in air, parallel to the ground.
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