LONDON (Yonhap News) ― South Korean taekwondo fighter Lee Dae-hoon was soundly beaten by Joel Gonzalez Bonilla of Spain, 17-8, in the gold medal bout for the men’s under-58 kg division Wednesday. Given the high expectations placed upon South Korean athletes in their nation’s traditional martial art, an Olympic silver may be seen as a disappointment in some quarters.

That Lee even made it that far in his first Olympics, however, is rendered remarkable when you consider that the 20-year-old had to shed a substantial amount of weight and risked losing strength to move down a weight class for London.

Gonzalez Bonilla is ranked No. 1 in the under-58 kg category. The gold medal match was the first head-to-head meeting between the two, and that is largely because Lee normally competes in the under-63 kg class.

At the Olympics, men’s categories are: under-58 kg, under-68 kg, under-80 kg and over-80 kg. World championships and other international events offer a wider range of categories, and Lee won the 2010 Asian Games gold and the 2011 World Championships gold in under-63 kg.

But he becomes a so-called “tweener” for the Olympics, akin to a basketball player who isn’t considered fast enough to play shooting guard and isn’t strong or tall enough to play forward.

Lee has said he normally weighs between 63 kg and 65 kg. For the under-63 kg class, he’d only had to lose a couple of kilograms. But for under-58 kg in London, he needed to shed some 8 kg for the weigh-in. Lee could have moved up to under-68 kg, but South Korean officials decided he didn’t have the stature to compete against under-68 kg fighters, and they also felt this particular division had greater depth than under-58 kg.

Lee first competed in his new weight class at this year’s Asian Championships in May, and won the gold medal. Lee has said the victory gave him confidence that he could be competitive in under-58 kg on a bigger stage. About a month before the Olympics, Lee said while he’d be considered short in under-68 kg and even in his usual under-63 kg, he wouldn’t have such issues in under-58 kg.