Three-times world champion Bianca Cook faces a selection battle for a GB Taekwondo place at the Paris 2024 Olympics ©Getty Images

Gary Hall, performance director for GB Taekwondo, has insisted that “emotional factors” will not come into the decision over the selection battle for the Paris 2024 Olympics between Bianca Cook and Rebecca McGowan.

Hall, who has overseen the winning of nine Olympic medals, including two golds, since the Athens 2004 Olympics, told PA News Agency it will come down to who is "the best person to be selected."

McGowan, a 23-year-old from Dumbarton, in Scotland, won world bronze in 2022 and world silver last year in the heavyweight category of over-73 kilograms.

Cook, 31, won the world heavyweight title in 2015, 2017 and 2019 under her maiden name of Walkden, and is now set on adding to the two Olympic heavyweight bronze medals - where the weight category is over-67kg - that she won at the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Two-time world medallist Rebecca McGowan, pictured meeting IOC President Thomas Bach at the 2019 World Taekwondo Championships, is contesting the Paris 2024 heavyweight place with three-times world champion Bianca Cook ©Getty Images
Two-time world medallist Rebecca McGowan, pictured meeting IOC President Thomas Bach at the 2019 World Taekwondo Championships, is contesting the Paris 2024 heavyweight place with three-times world champion Bianca Cook ©Getty Images

Only one place in the Paris 2024 women’s under-67kg category is available.

"We don’t have emotional factors that we consider," Hall said.

"The athlete knows well in advance what they must do to be the best person to be selected.

"Our job is very clear, to select the best team to win the best set of medals at any event.

"It is difficult, because it is a four-year journey and there are going to be winners and losers in that race.

"But we have learned a lot since 2012, when we were relatively new as an Olympic sport, and our selection policies have moved on to become very solid and legally sound.

"There is a real empathetic thread, because athletes have worked hard to be in the running for selection, and we try to manage people’s ups and downs, and work with them whether they get selected or not.

"Does that mean there aren’t going to be winners and losers?

Gary Hall, performance director of GB Taekwondo since the Athens 2004 Olympics, says emotion will not come into his selection problem for Paris 2024 ©Getty Images
Gary Hall, performance director of GB Taekwondo since the Athens 2004 Olympics, says emotion will not come into his selection problem for Paris 2024 ©Getty Images

"No, it doesn’t."

Coincidentally Hall’s high profile selection decision taken before the London 2012 Olympics concerned Aaron Cook - Bianca’s husband - and Lutalo Muhammad, who was a controversial choice for the men’s under-80kg place.

Muhammad, whose grasp on gold at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games was knocked away in the final second of his fight against Cheick Sallah Cisse of the Ivory Coast, earned bronze at the London 2012 Olympics - but Hall maintains the pressure of his twice-appealed selection cost him gold.

"I think both Lutalo and Aaron lost out from a personal perspective," added Hall.

"Lutalo wasn’t at his best in the Games, but once the pressure was off and he wasn’t going to win gold or silver, you saw his quality come out to win that bronze medal."