GATEWAY, Fla. — A little more than a year ago, Fox 4 Senior Reporter Kaitlin Knapp introduced you to Master Nikki Oliver at World Championship Taekwondo in Gateway. At the time, her big goal was to coach at the Olympics.
"I was there to work and put in my time and cut my teeth a little bit," said Oliver.
That work led to the opportunity of a lifetime.
Watch to see Oliver's journey at the 2024 Paris Olympics:
"I did get invited to go to the Olympic prep camp leading into the last leg of the Olympic cycle into Paris," she said.
The camp was for Team USA and athletes across the world. They came to Charlotte to train and fight each other before heading to Paris. Oliver started coaching an athlete from Niger.
"Issoufou Rasfak came up to me and was like, 'coach, I would like to discuss with you the potential of coaching me at the Olympics,'" Oliver said.
The coach was left speechless.
An American coaching another country is fairly common for the Olympics.
"Coaching isn’t…it’s not a nationality — it's a sport," Oliver said.
What made the relationship different is the fact Oliver had only been working with him for a few weeks.
"You should be working with your athlete for years before you go," she explained.
But, that didn't stop them from going to Paris.
"I bleed red, white and blue, but for these games I was sweating green and orange," Oliver said.
She got off the plane and said that's when Oliver realized it was go time.
They trained twice a day between meetings, headshots, uniform checks and more.
On day 20 is when they had their match and entered the arena through two large double doors.
"It’s probably one of the most surreal experiences I’ve ever experienced," Oliver said.
Issoufou went into the preliminaries.
"We ended up losing to Caden Cunningham, whose from Great Britain, who ended up getting silver," she said.
But, that wasn't the end of the line for the duo.
"If you lose to one of the players that ends in finals, you immediately get through in to the repechage bracket," Oliver explained.
They didn't find out until later they would be in that bracket, which means they were going for the bronze medal.
Issoufou was fighting through a leg injury.
"We ended up winning our first round with Cuba, and dropped our second and third," Oliver said.
She says while deflating, it made her proud.
"That made me proud, knowing that he was able to give some sort of light to some of those younger kids to see that hey, this is attainable for me," Oliver said.
Back home in southwest Florida, the pride came through messages and texts.
"I did get inundated with so many sweet messages and videos and pictures of kids watching the TV," she said. "It was just really cool to know that I have hometown feel and hometown support, too."
Not only did she have the support here, but in the arena with her husband nearby.
"The stadium was loud — he was louder," Oliver laughed.
The 25 days in Paris was a "whirlwind of emotion and events and work," she said.
As things start to settle down for the taekwondo master, Knapp asked Oliver, like last time, what the next goal is.
"Short-term goal I would love to do senior world championships next year," she said. "The long term goal is LA 28."
With Oliver working towards that goal, she has this message for Issoufou:
"Thanks for the opportunity, thanks for trusting me," she said.
