Fifteen-year-old Mia Aurelja Xianglin Zhuo from Tübingen won bronze in the women's taijiquan combined at Dakar 2026, Europe's only wushu medal of the sport's Olympic debut. Her father and coach Haojun Zhuo is sports director of the European federation.

Europe left wushu's Olympic debut with a medal. Germany's Mia Aurelja Xianglin Zhuo, 15, won bronze in the women's taijiquan combined at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games on 3 November, behind Singapore's Ng Zhe Nin (gold, 18.713) and Chu Yu-En of Chinese Taipei (silver). Across the four taolu events it was the only medal won by a European athlete.

Zhuo, from Tübingen, competed with the fan (taijishan) and in bare-hand taijiquan. According to Germany's public broadcaster Sportschau, she was second after the first routine and finished third once both scores were combined. She was the only European in the eight-athlete final, where five of the starters came from Asia.

Video: Olympics / YouTube (full replay of the finals session)

"Almost out of place" on the podium

Zhuo told reporters after the medal ceremony that she was proud, though standing on the podium in a sport so strongly shaped by Asia felt almost out of place to her. "That I could keep up with the athletes from Asia like this is unbelievable," she said, as quoted by Sportschau.

She also described how little known the sport still is at home. Inside the German team, she was often asked what she actually does, and the easiest answer was to ask whether they knew kung fu. In Germany, she said, you know pretty much everyone at competitions.

A family medal

Wushu runs in the family. Her father Haojun Zhuo is her coach and sports director of the European wushu federation, and in Germany he is involved in training judges. Her mother Truc Nhu Tran manages her career and is youth leader in the German Wushu Federation. Both were in Dakar. Tran called the bronze a family medal, and one for the whole German wushu community.

German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) president Thomas Weikert admitted he knows wushu only in outline, but pointed out that the Olympic programme keeps changing and that Germany needs to develop athletes in sports that may be in demand in four, eight or twelve years.

Read more: all medallists from wushu's Olympic debut.

Sources: Sportschau, Bild, Xinhua, Olympics.com.

Read more on www.sportschau.de