Mark Lopez wins Silver and Sister Diana takes Bronze in Olympic Taekwondo

[The Judge]

I’m sure most of you have heard about the Lopez family which has three siblings on the US Olympic Taekwondo team and their older brother Jean is the US team coach. Their father, Julio has worked for my firm since before I came on board over 16 years ago so I have watched these kids grow up into champions.

Earlier today, Diana won the Bronze Medal and Mark won the Silver in their respective weight divisions. Steven who is already a two time Olympic Gold Medalist, fights tomorrow and as you can imagine, everyone in our office and community is very excited. This is the first time in 104 years that three siblings have been on the same Olympic team and needless to say, we are all very proud of the whole family.


BEIJING — Two members of the America’s first family of taekwondo earned their first Olympic medals on Thursday.

Mark Lopez claimed a silver medal and Diana Lopez a bronze, leaving them happy to be medal-winners, but somewhat disappointed that they didn’t claim the ultimate prize.

“I came here for the gold medal; silver’s great, but I came here for the gold,” said Mark Lopez.

Lopez lost 3-2 in one of the most exciting bouts at the Beijing Science and Technology University Gymnasium.

Korea’s Son Tae-jin scored the winner as time expired in the third and final round.

Lopez, who trailed 2-0 at one point in the match, thought the ruling on the point was incorrect.

“I thought it should have been 1-1 (a point for each), but that’s the way it went,” Lopez said. “When you’re fighting Koreans, you have to go over and beyond to beat them and I guess I didn’t do that today.

“It’s their sport … sometimes they get their way. Their one of the best and every time you face Korea, they are a formidable opponent and I respect that. It was a great match.”

Diana Lopez fought her way through repechage after losing in the second round. It took two wins in an hour for her to take the bronze medal.

She fell behind Italy’s Veronica Calabrese 2-1 after the second round, but tied the match early in the third and won it 3-2 in overtime.

The family has another shot at the Games, Mark Lopez said.

“Above everything, I’m here at the Olympic Games with my family - I can’t overlook that - it’s been a great ride and it’s not over yet," Lopez said. "My brother Steven’s gonna finish strong for us."

Steven looks to win a third straight gold medal here on Friday.

He opens against Bahri Tanrikulu, the brother of the fighter who knocked Diana out of gold medal contention.

“He’ll have my revenge,” Diana said.

[rmaciasl]

they make history with this team going to this olympic

[mark12]

A great family. They all make Houston proud.

[revnecro1273]

homer

[WildKat]

obv brag post........just kidding......That's kewl

[GFootsXtreme]

Makes it a lot mroe personal and a lot more fun to watch I'm sure. Please congratulate the father for me!

For the son who got silver, losing to a Korean, where the sport was created, should provide at least a little solace i would hope. 2nd best in the world at the weight class at the time is pretty awesome.

Does Julio know Tae Kwon Do also? Does he get his way in the office most of the time....

[The Judge]

BEIJING — Two-time Olympic gold medalist Steven Lopez, denied an opportunity to continue toward a third gold after losing the first match of his Olympic career in the wake of a disputed referee's call, bounced back to win his last two matches and claim his third medal, a bronze.

Lopez, a four-time world champion, joins brother Mark, who won a silver medal despite fighting most of the day with a compound fracture in his right hand, and Diana, who won a bronze medal, as Olympic medalists in taekwondo.

USA Taekwondo filed a protest on behalf of Lopez, claiming that a penalty assessed in his match against Mauro Sarmiento represented an incorrect application of the sport's rules.

The protest was judged "unacceptable" by officials with the World Taekwondo Union, the sport's governing body.

Lopez led 2-0 after two rounds in his quarterfinal against the Italian in the 176-pound class, but Sarmiento scored with 1:34 left in the third round, and Lopez lost a point on accrued penalties with 49 seconds left in the round, forcing the match into overtime.

Sarmiento then won it 32 seconds into overtime, landing a kick to Lopez's back as the two-time champion pressed the attack.

The Italian advanced to the gold medal match, losing 6-4 to Hadi Saei of Iran.

Under the competition rules, that enabled Lopez to re-enter the repechage rounds for one of the two bronze medals, which he won with a 3-2 victory over Rashad Ahmadov of Azerbaijan.

"I'm in disbelief a little bit," Lopez said. "Pride was getting to me. I'm fighting for bronze, and I'm accustomed to being in the finals and winning gold medals. "But I'm happy. I'm happy that all of us came here as a family. We all medaled, and that is all I can ask of myself."

Diana and Mark Lopez and their parents, Julio and Ondina Lopez, watched from the stands as Steven Lopez lost the disputed match to Sarmiento, then fought his way back to the medals stand.

Mark Lopez watched with his left hand, which was broken in his opening match Thursday against Nesar Amhad Bahave of Afghanistan, wrapped in gauze and protective padding from fingers to wrist.

“First exchange of the first fight,” he said. “I said, ‘Ooh, I felt that. But I said to just keep fighting and hopefully it won’t affect me the rest of the time. The doctor and trainer did an excellent job of treating me. I didn’t feel much pain.”

He said he suffered a compound fracture of the third and fourth metacarpal and will undergo surgery as early as next week.

Herb Perez, an executive with USA Taekwondo, said the federation believes the referee, Oh Il Nam of Indonesia, improperly applied a rule and assessed an unwarranted penalty in Steven Lopez’s match against Sarmiento.

That penalty, combined with an early out of bounds call against Lopez, resulted in his score being deducted by a point in the third round, which sent the match to overtime.

Perez said the WTF violated its own procedures by not granting a proper hearing to the protest and by not considering video evidence. He also said it reflects the degree to which change is needed in the Korean-controlled WTF.

“This has been going on for 20 or 30 years, and every time it happens we’re told to be quiet and it will get better,” Perez said. “It gets better every four years for about 10 seconds, and then it happens again. And when it happens to you, you’re told to shut up and not say anything because of what might happen to the sport.

“If this is truly what taekwondo is about, maybe taekwondo shouldn’t be an Olympic sport.”

Meanwhile, Jean Lopez, the oldest Lopez sibling and coach of Steven, Mark and Diana, said Steven Lopez’s inability to win a third gold medal should not reduce the magnitude of what his family has accomplished.

“It (a silver and two bronze medals) represents success. It really does,” he said. “I can’t say we’re not highly disappointed with the way things turned out (in the Steven Lopez-Sarmiento match) but looking at everything, you can’t dismiss the fact that we created even more history.

“It’s not the color of medal we wanted, but we brought three Lopezes to Beijing. They came as Olympians, and they will leave as Olympic medalists.”

[skippy]

Originally Posted by mark12

A great family. They all make Houston proud.

Brook and Robin already made them proud.

[huscroft6]

BEIJING — Two members of the America’s first family of taekwondo earned their first Olympic medals on Thursday.

Mark Lopez claimed a silver medal and Diana Lopez a bronze, leaving them happy to be medal-winners, but somewhat disappointed that they didn’t claim the ultimate prize, having their friend Judge (legend at Cappersmall) present during the award cermonies.

[revnecro1273]

Originally Posted by huscroft6

BEIJING — Two members of the America’s first family of taekwondo earned their first Olympic medals on Thursday.

Mark Lopez claimed a silver medal and Diana Lopez a bronze, leaving them happy to be medal-winners, but somewhat disappointed that they didn’t claim the ultimate prize, having their friend Judge (legend at Cappersmall) present during the award cermonies.

wouldnt have happened anyway...the chinese govt denied judge his visa...they claimed they didnt want riff raff in the peoples republic of china

[The Judge]

Originally Posted by revnecro1273

wouldnt have happened anyway...the chinese govt denied judge his visa...they claimed they didnt want riff raff in the peoples republic of china

How did you slip under the radar?

[revnecro1273]

Originally Posted by The Judge

How did you slip under the radar?

they let people who have had visas before come through easily