Taekwondo battle for bronze had an extra nasty kick

BEIJING -- Saturday's taekwondo bronze-medal match packed extra punch after Angel Valodia Matos of Cuba deliberately kicked the referee in the face after being disqualified for taking too much time for an injury.

Matos was winning 3-2 against Arman Chilmanov of Kazakhstan, with 1:02 left in the second round, when he fell to the mat after being hit. Matos sat there, awaiting medical attention but was disqualified when he sat for longer than the allowed one minute.

Matos almost immediately charged Swedish referee Chakir Chelbat, who required stitches for a cut lip. The World Taekwondo Federation took immediate steps to place a lifetime ban on Matos. Chilmanov was declared the winner.

It isn't the first time that the sport has been marred by angry scenes at an Olympics. At the 2004 Games in Athens, there was a storm of protests over refereeing decisions.

Taekwondo survived one vote by the International Olympic Committee when it came time to trim the number of sports, but it faces another vote next year as officials for cricket, rugby, golf and karate push for their sports to be included.

"I feel this can be part of our growing pain," said World Taekwondo Federation chief Yang Jin-Suk. "With your blessings, we will overcome all the difficulties. We're going to show what the true taekwondo is down the road."

-- Debbie Goffa

Photo: After being disqualified, Angel Valodia Matos of Cuba launches a kick against referee Chakir Chelbat. Credit: Behrouz Mehri / AFP / Getty Images

Medals Per Capita table warms up to Iceland

For two heaving weeks, you could sense a planet cringing over the prospect that its Godzilla Olympic nation, the Bahamas, would get more than one medal and put the old chokehold on the vital Medals Per Capita proceedings.

Australia turned up in Beijing muscular as ever. Armenia surfaced and spent five days at No. 1. New Zealand had banner Beijing Games and menaced. Here came Slovenia, of course. Jamaica became a blur on the track and a Zeus in the standings. The Bahamas surfaced with a first medal as a fur-flying race loomed.

And as the final weekend dawned, up popped a name so lyrical to Medals Per Capita ears that the mere thought of it constitutes a Medals Per Capita dreamscape.

Iceland.

Why, that’s Medals Per Capita poetry.

An immediate MPC darling, Iceland clinched a medal Friday by reaching the team handball final in a convulsive upset of Spain that nobody outside of Reykjavik saw coming. Iceland’s president, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, attended the match and called it the biggest climax in Icelandic athletic history. Iceland’s first lady, Dorrit Moussaieff, gave a 10-minute pre-match shoulder massage to player Logi Geirsson, Reuters reported, surely one of the coolest moments in Medals Per Capita history, Olympic history, sports history and first-lady history.

"Before the game we form a ring and take each other’s hands like the Vikings did 500 years ago," Geirsson said in the Reuters article. "And we say we’re going out on a ship to fight for our lives."

And we say at MPC headquarters, please get me a tissue, given such runaway appeal plus an understated population of 304,367 people with thick skin. Once those medals go onto Icelandic handball necks, MPC reckoned on Saturday morning, that would make Iceland a late entry at No. 2 in the standings, behind only Jamaica, which then added an 11th track medal (women’s 4-x-100) to whittle its MPC rating to an imposing 254,939 (one medal for every 254,939 Jamaicans).

Right about then, though, seeing such insurrection from everywhere, the Athens champion the Bahamas finally decided it had to bring the kibosh. Its 4-x-400-meter relay team of Andretti Bain, Andrae Williams, Michael Mathieu and Christopher Brown came through in 2:58.03, easily beating everybody but the United States.

That lifted the Bahamian medal total to two, one medal for every 153,725 Bahamians, with no word on whether that includes those using it as a tax shelter.

With one day to go, that out-of-this-world numeral would appear insuperable, unless Jamaica can come up with eight more medals, or unless Australia can get 134 more, or unless China can find about 9,000.

Or unless Iceland, beyond handball glory, could find just one.

Medals Per Capita minutiae after Saturday after the jump...

While you were sleeping

BEIJING -- The relays turned out OK for the U.S. track and field team after all.

Neither the men nor the women sprinters could get the baton all the way around the track in the 400-meter relay prelims, but the quarter-milers brought redemption.

Russia and the United States traded the lead in the women’s 1,600-meter relay, the Russians leading after the first and third legs. But Sanya Richards ran down Anastasia Kapachinskaya in the final 400 meters to give the United States the victory in 3:18.54. Russia was second in 3:18.82. Jamaica was third in 3:20.40.

Allyson Felix of Los Angeles ran the second leg and gave the U.S. a temporary lead.

The U.S. men needed no such dramatics, winning their 1,600-relay final with ease in an Olympic record time of 2:55.39. Three members of the team -- LaShawn Merritt, Jeremy Wariner and David Neville -- had finished 1-2-3 in the open quarter.

Another Lopez, another Olympic tae kwon do medal

After suffering his first-ever defeat in three Olympic Games, and first loss in six years, welterweight Steven Lopez today rebounded to win a bronze medal at the Beijing University of Science and Technology Gymnasium.

Italy's Mauro Sarmiento, the eventual silver medalist, defeated Lopez in sudden-death overtime in the quarterfinal round.

Sarmiento advanced to the finals, where he finished second. Lopez then entered the repechage (second chance) where he won bronze by defeating Ivory Coast's Sebastien Konan, 3-0, and Azerbaijan's Rashad Ahmadov for the bronze medal, 3-2.

With the bronze, the Lopez siblings from Sugar Land, Texas, will leave Beijing Games with three Olympic medals. Diana Lopez captured bronze in the women's featherweight division and Mark Lopez took silver in the men's featherweight class.

-- Greg Johnson

Photo: U.S. athlete Steven Lopez, right, and Italy's Mauro Sarmiento compete during the men's tae kwon do quarterfinal today. Credit: Michael Reynolds / EPA

While you were sleeping

BEIJING — The Olympic sport that brought you such U.S. gold medalists as Floyd Patterson, Muhammad Ali (when he was still known as Cassius Clay), Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Sugar Ray Leonard, the Spinks brothers and Oscar De La Hoya now brings you ... no one.

The United States’ last chance for a gold medal in boxing ended with a 7-1 semifinal loss Friday by Deontay Wilder of Tuscaloosa, Ala., to Italy’s Clemente Russo.

The United States, which has won more boxing gold medals (48) than any other country had its last real success in 1988 when it won three titles, and would have won another if Roy Jones Jr. hadn’t been robbed. That’s not a biased opinion but a fact later acknowledged by the International Olympic Committee.

Since, the United States has won three gold medals total. De La Hoya won in 1992.

A trivia question: Who won the other two? (Answer below.)

USA Boxing, the governing body, is in such disarray today that promoters who used to launch young boxers based on their Olympic success now advise them to bolt from the amateurs as soon as possible and turn professional.

So we’re seeing a lot of U.S. fighters in the Olympics who will be filling up professional undercards at rings near you in the future. Someone has to do it.

(Trivia answer: David Reid, 1996; Andre Ward, 2004.)

Mexico wins its first gold medal at Beijing Games

BEIJING — Guillermo Perez became Mexico's second medalist, and first gold medalist, of the 2008 Summer Games with a victory in the 58-kilogram taekwondo competition.

It was a historic night as Afghanistan won its first Olympic medal ever, with a third place for Rohulla Nikpai.

Perez defeated Dominica's Yulis Gabriel Mercedes for the gold medal. It was Mexico's second gold medal in the last five Olympics, the other going to women's weightlifter Soraya Jiminez in 2000.

Mexico's flagbearer in the opening ceremony, Paolo Espinosa, and Tatiana Ortiz combined for the country's only other medal here, a bronze in synchronized platform diving. She and Ortiz have qualified for the finals in the women's solo platform competition.

-- Randy Harvey

Photo: Mexico's Guillermo Perez shows off his gold medal for the 58-kilogram class of men's taekwondo at the Beijing Olympics. Credit: Matt Dunham / Associated Press

More Olympians talk about the opening ceremony

The U.S. Olympic Committee on Friday released comments from athletes who took part in Friday night's opening ceremony for the Beijing Games. Here are some of the athletes' impressions.

Brian Olson (Judo)

“It was awesome. A lot different from the other ones. I was very impressed. I didn’t get to see the first part because we were in the holding tank, but for me, being the vet, seeing the new guys’ faces when we were walking out of the chute and into the stadium for the first time was awesome. This Olympics has gone above and beyond. It was special, whether it’s your fourth or first.”

Taylor Takata (Judo)

“I think the best part of the ceremony itself was when the guy was flying around and lighting the torch. When he was going around over the crowd it was awesome, but the real best part was meeting all the other athletes and taking pictures with everybody.”

Valerie Gotay (Judo)

“Being with all the athletes was cool. That was the biggest thrill. Coming out of the tunnel and everybody chanting “USA!” and doing our walk with the U.S. delegation. That was memorable. Unforgettable. Motivating.”

Erin Blanchard (Trampoline)

“It was amazing. I had goosebumps the whole way around. It was a once-in-a-lifetime thing for me. There were so many people there, and I don’t think that I’ve ever seen that many people in one place before. The lighting of the torch was absolutely breathtaking.”

Jean Lopez (Taekwondo)

“It was awesome. The way they lit the torch was amazing. It's always the most anticipated part of the opening ceremonies and I was in complete awe. Beijing has delivered a great start to the Games.”

Charlotte Craig (Taekwondo)

“It was amazing, more than what I expected. I had a great time. My heart was racing when we walked into the stadium with all the people cheering. And I got to walk in next to LeBron James and all the basketball players. It was great to be next to them and next to the Lopez family as we marched in together.”

Michael Blatchford (Cycling)

“It was mind boggling to walk out to 90,000 cheering people while chanting USA with all the other U.S. Olympians and representing your country.”

Sadam Ali (Boxing)

“It was reaaly nice, it was inspirational. It made me want to compete. Standing with the whole U.S. team made me feel really good.”

Demetrius Andrade (Boxing)

“It was once in a lifetime. It was crazy, I loved it. I was speechless at times. It was wonderful. I really liked the torch and the guy flying through the air.”

Adam Duvendeck (Cycling)

“We were expecting something big and they definitely delivered. The torch lighting was awesome. It definitely stood out in my mind.”

Bobby Lea (Cycling)

“The first few steps into the stadium ... I just felt like the hard work and dedication we put in to get here is what the Olympics are all about. It really drives home that this is the greatest stage for any athlete.”

Photos: President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush wave to U.S. athletes during the opening ceremony for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics at the Bird's Nest. Credit: Alexander Hassenstein / Bongarts / Getty Images. Insert: Erin Blanchard. Credit: USOC

Taekwondo's first family adds Craig to the list

BEIJING -- The contrast couldn't have been starker.

When the U.S. basketball team's interview session ended in conference room 1 at the media center in Beijing on Friday afternoon, there were still hundreds of reporters from all over the world in their seats, listening to simultaneous translations in eight languages.

When the U.S. taekwondo team met the media in the same room moments later, you could almost count on two hands the number of reporters who remained. And there's no comparison when it comes to the Olympic track record of the two teams either, since taekwondo's Steven Lopez comes into the Olympics having won twice as many gold medals by himself (two) as the members of the U.S. basketball team have combined (one).

Which isn't to say the U.S. taekwondo team has been ignored here. When it arrived in Beijing on Thursday, it was met by camera crews at the airport, partly owing to Steven's pursuit of a third consecutive Olympic title and partly owing to the fact that this time his younger brother Mark and sister Diane are competing as well, making them the first three siblings to compete in the same discipline for a U.S. Olympic team since 1904. What's more, they'll all be competing under the direction of oldest brother Jean, the Olympic coach.

"They're my family, and they're my teammates," Steven Lopez said. "So when I go into [the competition] it's almost unfair because it's four against one."

Make that five. Unofficially the Lopez family has grown by one for these Games with the addition of 17-year-old women's flyweight competitor Charlotte Craig of Murrieta.

"They've taken me in as their family, basically," said Craig, who spent two months living with Mark Lopez and his fiance Dagmar in Texas during the lead-up to the Olympics. "We joke around saying that I'm the adopted Lopez. And I'm just grateful to be on the team with them. I really look up to all of them."

Truth be told, given Craig's difficultly qualifying for the Beijing competition, she'd probably be grateful to be on the team no matter who came with her. A senior nationals champion as a 14-year-old, Craig was a late replacement for five-time U.S. champion Mandy Meloon in the finweight class at last year's world championships in China, where she surprised by winning a bronze medal

Then last April, two months after her 17th birthday, she qualified for the Olympics by winning at the U.S. trials in Des Moines.

"It surprised me," she admitted in a voice no louder than a whisper. "I knew it was going to be hard to qualify for the U.S. for the Olympics. And when I did, I was in shock. It doesn't still real."

Nor did the chance to model, on national TV, the Ralph Lauren outfits selected for the U.S. Olympians for Friday's opening ceremony.

"I was a bit nervous," she said. "But I had lots of fun. I really enjoyed it."

Which is what she hopes to do with her first Olympic competition as well.

"I'm not intimidated at all," said Craig, who trains in Laguna Niguel. "Having Steven on the team, since he's been to the Olympics twice already, I ask him a lot of questions. And basically he just told me I'm fighting the same girls, but just it's going to be on a bigger stage. So I'm taking that advice."

And as for being the fifth Lopez? Well, she's taking that in stride too.

"It doesn't bother me at all," she said. "It's a great thing that there's three siblings and their oldest brother is the Olympic coach. It's helping out our sport."

Adds Jean Lopez: "There isn't a feeling of having a fifth wheel around. It's a testament to the kind of personality and character that she has. She's the right person for this time and the history implications that we have as a family. She's taken everything with good grace."

-- Kevin Baxter

Photo: From the left: Mark, Steven and Diana Lopez. Credit: Pat Sullivan / Associated Press