This Cuban "Olympian" is Angel Valodia Matos. Matos was a Sydney 2000 gold medalist. So on he comes to Beijing to compete once more.
In the middle of the second round of his +80kg bout against world silver medalist Arman Chilmanov of Kazakhstan, he broke his left toe. Taekwondo rules will stop the clock for injury for one minute. Any longer and the contestant is deemed unfit to continue. Chong (Red player) took more than that one minute, so the Swedish referee (of Arabic north African decent) declared Hong (Blue player) as the winner.
The Cuban and his coach did not like to lose to Uzbekistan that way, so once the ref announced the verdict, Matos attacked him with two kicks to the head.
Being an Ex-Taekwondo athlete and a life long fan, I watched this live and was appalled and enraged by this violent act of a cry baby sore loser.
The World Taekwondo Federation seemed to share my feelings as they immediately announced that Matos and his coach would be permanently barred from all championships it promotes. They said:
"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."
Serves him right. Congratulations to the WTF on its swift and stern reaction. And to Matos: You are a disgrace to all Athletes on earth, be they martial artists or else. Your Sydney 2000 medal is undeserved in this light and it is a shame to see it wasted on an arrogant cry baby such as your self.
It is a good thing that we will never see you again. Good riddance.
4 comments:
He should have been arrested,Bad calls or close calls are not sattled this way, he was an experianced player and should know better than attacking an official.
but what do you think about judging in beijing?
Eyad,
I hope the ref presses charges against that jerk.
As for refereeing? I am not sure if you mean the Olympics as a whole or the TKD events, I guess the latter.
I am not a TKD expert, I am sure my coach and International referee Sabumnim Abdulla Aldoy has his own informed opinion (I might ask him|) but as for me, I thought it went pretty well. I did see some questionable points and others that were not counted, but I do trust the referees especially with the electronic system in place.
that's stupid. if you can't handle the heat, don't compete! oh, and video doesn't work. bloody batelco.
Ammaro>
Hmm. I see it too. And I tried it on Lightspeed & Etisalcom connections too. Maybe it really was removed.
Anyhow, I've replaced it with another video. Try now.
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