Matos was winning 3-2, with 1:02 in the second round, when he fell to the mat after being hit by his opponent, Kazakhstan's Arman Chilmanov. He was sitting awaiting medical attention when he was disqualified for taking too much injury time. Fighters get one minute, and Matos was disqualified when his time ran out.
Matos angrily questioned the call, pushed a judge, then pushed and kicked referee Chakir Chelbat of Sweden. Matos then spat on the floor and was escorted out.
"He was too strict," Gonzalez said, referring to the decision to disqualify Matos. Afterward, he charged the match was fixed, accusing the Kazakhs of offering him money.
"This is a strong violation of the spirit of taekwondo and the Olympic Games. The sanctions are the following and are effective immediately: Lifetime ban of the coach and athlete in all championships sanctioned by the (World Taekwondo Federation) and at the same time, all records of this athlete at the Beijing Games will immediately be erased," said the announcer, reading a WTF release.
Attention, Mr. Jacques Rogge - International Olympic Committee president - are you reading this? What a shame! What are you going to do about it? Stop picking on the little guys. I'll be really shocked if TKD is still in the Olympics come 2016 with all scandals it brought to be Games.
Steven Lopez, a recipient of controversial calls in the past, got a dose of his own medicine.
With taekwondo already rumored to be on the brink of Olympic elimination, the sport was doing everything it could to avoid even the slightest shock of controversy.
On Friday, it was struck by lightning.
In a chaotic episode that might ultimately prove to be the tipping point to Olympic doom, American two-time defending gold medalist Steven Lopez was eliminated from gold-medal contention on a controversial referee’s decision. Lopez would go on to win bronze in the 80-kilogram weight class, but not until after his team leader, Herb Perez, had filed a protest and then ripped the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) for intimidation and gross mismanagement of the sport’s rules and oversight.
“When (poor judging) happens to you, you’re told to shut up and not say anything because of what will happen to you, or what will happen to the sport,” Perez said. “If this is truly what taekwondo is about, maybe taekwondo shouldn’t be in the Olympics. Maybe they should fix it.”
How convenient. Fix the scoring maybe scoring protests will lessen.
The US taekwondo team protested to no avail, although member countries of the World Taekwondo Federation had earlier signed a document pledging not to make a protest, US team leader Herb Perez said.
"We feel if we force the World Taekwondo Federation to raise their standards then this would be a better Olympic sport. It should be fair for all athletes," Perez said.
"There is a chance that I will be sanctioned, but I'm not concerned about myself," Perez said.
If Perez's assertion is true, then it's plain and simple intimidation. Tsk. The WTF officials had all the time in the world to fine tune their scoring system but didn't make one. The officials are to blame if TKD gets eliminated as an Olympic sport not the athletes.
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