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U.S.
Olympic Committee Honors Diana and Steven
Lopez
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COLORADO
SPRINGS, Colo. -- The U.S. Olympic
Committee today named USA Taekwondo’s
Diana and Steven Lopez as its April
Athletes of the Month. The USOC Team
of the Month honor was awarded to
the U.S. Women’s Ice Hockey Team.
Diana
and Steven Lopez (Sugar Land, Texas),
sister and brother, both won gold
medals (featherweight and welterweight,
respectively) at the Taekwondo World
Championships in Madrid, Spain, April
13-17. Along with their brother, Mark
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(featherweight),
the Lopez family made sports history in
Madrid by taking three gold medals. Never
before have three siblings won world titles
at the same event in any sport. The siblings
are all coached by their eldest brother,
Jean. It also marks the first time that
a brother and sister have been honored as
USOC Athletes of the Month for the same
month.
The
family’s three gold medals also signified
the most successful Taekwondo World Championships
in U.S. history. The U.S. had never won
more than one gold medal in a previous World
Championships. For Steven, a two-time Olympic
gold medalist (2000, 2004), the win was
his third consecutive World Championship
title (2001, 2003, 2005).
Taekwondo
To Remain an Olympic Sport
Tae
Kwon Do Remains Olympic Sport in 2008
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Seoul,
SK…According to a report printed
in the JoongAng Daily, a South Korean
newspaper, Tae Kwon Do will remain
a full Olympic sport in the 2008 Games
in Beijing, China. At a meeting in
Switzerland held the second week of
April, the Korean Olympic Committee
reported that IOC President Jacques
Rogge told KOC head Kim Jung-gil that
Tae Kwon Do will remain on the roster
of sports in the foreseeable future.
Rumors
that Tae Kwon Do would not retain
its status in the 2008 Games were
fueled by several scandals that erupted
over the past several years involving
the Korean martial art as well as
accusations of biased referring within
the martial sport. According to KOC
members, Rogge said that Tae Kwon
Do’s recent reform drive had
alleviated those concerns.
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