
Aaron Arthur Cook (born 2 January 1991) is a taekwondo athlete who has represented Great Britain (the nation of his birth), the Isle of Man, and Moldova. He has been ranked the number one in the men's โ80 kg division on several occasions. He is three-times a European champion having won the โ80 kg title at the European Taekwondo Championships in 2010, 2012 representing Great Britain and 2014 representing the Isle of Man, and was the world junior champion in the โ78 kg division in 2008. He represented Great Britain in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, where he reached the semi-final and was narrowly defeated in the bronze medal match. He was controversially left out of the British team for the 2012 Olympic Games in London despite being the world no. 1-ranked competitor in the โ80 kg division when the British Taekwondo Control Board selected Lutalo Muhammad (who was ranked world no. 59 in โ80 kg and world no. 7 in โ87 kg). Following this, Cook indicated he could no longer work with the governing authorities in Great Britain, and switched allegiance to the Isle of Man. This move to a non-Olympic nation ostensibly allowed Cook to achieve qualification for the 2016 Summer Olympics for
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