Source: http://www.wtf.org/site/news/people.htm?realnum=43&page=&keyword=∂=&mode=view
Siblings go for Gold — and Make Olympic History
By DAVID BARRON
The Houston Chronicle
THE FIRST FAMILY OF TAEKWONDO
• Jean Lopez , 35
The ringleader and the teacher of his three siblings, he will serve as head coach of the U.S. taekwondo team. He won a silver medal at the 1995 world championship but retired from active competition in 1999.
• Steven Lopez , 29
Arguably the greatest athlete in the sport's modern history, the two-time Olympic champion and four-time world champion will be seeking his third consecutive gold medal in the men's welterweight division.
• Mark Lopez , 26
The 2005 world champion in the men's featherweight competition, he qualified for his first Olympic team this spring by winning the U.S. national championship.
• Diana Lopez , 24
Also a former world champion in 2005, the youngest of the Lopez siblings will be making her Olympic debut in Beijing as a strong medal contender in the women's featherweight division.
The Lopez family is blogging from Beijing. See what they have to say so far at blogs.chron.com/lopezolympians
SUGAR LAND — They present quite a picture, gathered
atop a hill in an empty field alongside a busy highway: three brothers, one sister — an Olympic coach, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and two first-time Olympic team members.
They are the Lopez family of Sugar Land by way of New York and the former home of their parents, Managua, Nicaragua, and they are the first family of taekwondo.
But more to the point, they are, above all else, an American family.
They represent history. By qualifying for the 2008 Beijing Games, Steven, Mark and Diana Lopez, coached by Jean, their oldest brother, are the first set of three American siblings to compete at the same Olympic Games since 1904.
"I wish I were someone else at this moment to see in and to appreciate it, just to see people making history," Diana Lopez said. "I know that if I were to look in and see three siblings on the Olympic team with their oldest brother as head coach, I would think, man, that's so cool."
They represent perseverance. In 2000 and 2004, the Olympic trials process that produced celebration in 2008 was the source of frustration, disappointment and, to some observers, the question of whether the family could fulfill its Olympic dreams.
"In 2000, I was the only one that made it. It was the same thing in 2004," Steven Lopez said. "It was tough on Diana and Mark, and I almost felt guilty getting to go to the Olympics without them."
This year, especially, they represent capitalism. Collectively (AT&T, Hilton and Visa) and individually (Coca-Cola for Steven, the two-time Olympic gold medalist and four-time world champion), the Lopez family assaults the senses through print, TV, point of sale and Internet advertising in the same manner that they swarm opponents in their sport of choice.
"We tease Steven about that all the time," Mark Lopez said. "We tell him now that Diana and I are on the Olympic team, Mom is finally coming to watch us fight, and AT&T is approaching us and now Visa. But then we tell him the reason that we're here in the first place is because of his hard work."
Most of all, they represent a promise fulfilled.
"As first-generation citizens, we understand that whatever we go through, it's nothing to what our parents have overcome," Jean Lopez said. "They are our inspiration."
In 2000 and 2004, the family rallying cry was, "If one of us make it, we all make it."
On 8/8/08 at 8 p.m., all four Lopez siblings will march into the Bird's Nest stadium for the 2008 Olympics Opening Ceremony. They've made it.
Long road to Beijing
Steven, 29, arguably the greatest athlete in the sport's modern history, will compete in the men's welterweight division in search of a third gold medal. Mark, 26, and Diana, 24, who joined Steven as world champions in 2005, will compete in the men's and women's featherweight divisions, respectively. Jean Lopez, 35, will direct his siblings as head coach of the U.S. team.
They are the children of Julio and Ondina Lopez, who met in 1969 in their native Nicaragua. Julio Lopez attended a reunion at his former high school and met Ondina, who was in the 11th grade, and the couple was married three years later.
"I was working for the (central bank) and was worried about the economy," he said. "So I asked her, 'Have you ever thought about moving to United States?' She said she would like to, and so we got married and started a new life."
Julio Lopez came in 1972 to New York and his wife followed six months later, just before the deadly Managua earthquake of December 1972. Jean and Steven were born in New York before the family moved to Houston, where Julio Lopez found work as a structural engineer and where Mark and Diana were born.
An aficionado of the martial arts, Julio Lopez enrolled Jean in taekwondo classes at age 8 in 1981. Steven took up the sport two years later, and Mark and Diana joined in 1986 and 1988, respectively.
Jean was the ringleader and, from the beginning, the teacher.
"It was trial and error," he said. "They would remind us during the meetings (before competition) that, for example, that you can't punch somebody in the face, and so it would be, 'Hey Mark, Steven, you can't punch somebody in the face in this game.' But we got more sophisticated as we went along."
Jean Lopez became a student of the game, refining a fighting technique in which he used his front leg to clear space, similar to a boxer's jab.
He won a silver medal at the 1995 world championships but retired from competition in 1999 when his weight class was not picked for the 2000 Olympics.
Steven emerged as an international competitor in 1999, winning the Pan American Games, then the 2000 Olympic gold medal before adding the first of four consecutive world titles in 2001.
But the family continued to be at odds with the U.S. Taekwondo Union, the sport's national governing body, and Steven Lopez was the only sibling who qualified for the 2004 Olympics.
Also in 2004, the USTU was accused of financial improprieties and was decertified by the U.S. Olympic Committee, which installed a new group of administrators. USA Taekwondo, the new governing body, embraced the family, and all three siblings won gold medals at the 2005 world championships.
Steven Lopez qualified in 2007 for his third Olympics, and Mark and Diana followed suit this spring at the Olympic trials, where Diana defeated 2004 silver medalist Nia Abdallah of Houston in overtime in a match with a disputed outcome.
Different personalities
Between training sessions, commercial shoots and appearances, life has been a blur for the siblings since Mark and Diana qualified for the Olympics in the spring. On occasion, all four might show up at different times, traveling from different directions. But they are fiercely loyal to one another while remaining, in their way, unique souls.
The baby of the family often has the best perspective, so Diana Lopez's description of her three brothers stands for the moment as the definitive word.
"Jean is a man," she said. "Steven likes to take care of himself. He likes to go to spas and to get massages. (At the mention of the dreaded word "metrosexual," she said, "You said it. I didn't.") Marky is the stock market guy. Everybody would like Marky as a husband."
As for describing Diana, it's always best to consult a BFF.
"She's pretty clumsy, but that's a trait of good athletes," said Maria Morales, a friend since both were in middle school. "She always trips. I remember one time when we went to AstroWorld, and she got stuck in the UltraTwister ride. She did. Really."
Another example: As the family gathered for a recent photo shoot, posing barefoot in their official uniforms, Mark flipped his chewing gum on the ground. Diana, naturally, stepped on it.
But before you start laughing, Morales remembers another time when Lopez locked her keys in the car. She dispatched the window with a swift back kick, reached inside, got the keys, and the young women were on their way.
Diana, then, is the Terminator in heels, perhaps the best technician and, in Jean Lopez's mind, the fiercest competitor of the three.
Mark is the showman; he celebrates every victory with a roundoff handspring and a backflip.
Steven represents the apex of the Lopez fighting style. He has so successfully implemented Jean's theories that, for a time, it appeared the World Taekwondo Federation would institute a regulation known informally as the "Steven Lopez Rule" to inhibit his defensive strategies.
"They eventually decided not to change it, because so many people have made it part of their game, too," Steven said. "But they'll always be one step behind. Any time you try to replicate or do something somebody else does, you'll always be one step back. If they catch up, I'll be one step ahead. I'll always be one step ahead if they try to do what I do."
Listening to Mom
But all agree that the toughest Lopez of all is their mother, Ondina.
"The nurturing parent is my father. My mother is the rock," Mark Lopez said. "She's always in the back of my mind when I'm tired or don't want to work out," Mark Lopez said. "I hear her saying, 'Come on, Mark, there are people in tough situations who don't have food or have to work 14 hours a day. It's a great life you're leading, so take advantage of it. Go work out hard.' "
She has until recently been unwilling to watch her children fight and did not attend either of Steven's first two Olympic tournaments, but Ondina Lopez always has embraced the benefits that taekwondo has given her family.
"It's kept them out of trouble, and it's given them discipline," she said. "That has been so important."
Although only Steven retained his world title in 2007 and was the only Lopez to clinch a spot at the initial world qualifying tournament last fall, all three Lopez siblings have legitimate medal opportunities in Beijing.
"Diana, I think, is at her peak," Jean Lopez said. "Mark still has a lot of experience he has to gain. This may sound funny, but Steven still has a lot of things he can do to improve.
"Our goal for Beijing is not to win but to dominate. That is the challenge. I want to see the perfect day without leaving anything to drama or sudden death. Each is capable of that."
The road beyond
Steven and Diana, a junior at the University of Houston-Downtown who hopes to earn a degree in childhood education, live at home. Mark, who has a degree in finance from the University of St. Thomas, lives nearby as does Jean with his wife, Tabetha, and children Alyxandra, Diego and Andres.
Diana hopes to continue work on her degree after the Olympic crush subsides.
Mark said he will consider renewing his real estate license, but he hopes, like Steven, to remain in the sport as long as possible.
Steven Lopez is toying with the idea of trying to compete in 2012, at age 33, in the heavyweight division. But he also has ambitions beyond another stint on People magazine's list of America's most beautiful people.
"Until recently, without putting my personal life too much out there, my relationships have suffered outside my family," he said. "There are things, when I look back on them, that really (stink) because someone didn't understand or have the mind frame or the patience to wait it out."
But the Lopez family's affinity for perseverance is likely to prevail in that area, as it has in others.
"It is due to perseverance that we're here today," he said. "If there is a message that we can bring out that can transcend sport, it is to look at what this family has been able to do.
"I'm as excited as I can be as an older brother, as a teammate and as a fellow Olympian. I experienced it with Jean as my coach in 2004, living in the Olympic Village. To do it three times over and to walk into the Opening Ceremony, we can look at each other and say, 'We're here. We did it.' "
(Story from the Houston Chronicle, USA, on July 27, 2008)
By DAVID BARRON
The Houston Chronicle
THE FIRST FAMILY OF TAEKWONDO
• Jean Lopez , 35
The ringleader and the teacher of his three siblings, he will serve as head coach of the U.S. taekwondo team. He won a silver medal at the 1995 world championship but retired from active competition in 1999.
• Steven Lopez , 29
Arguably the greatest athlete in the sport's modern history, the two-time Olympic champion and four-time world champion will be seeking his third consecutive gold medal in the men's welterweight division.
• Mark Lopez , 26
The 2005 world champion in the men's featherweight competition, he qualified for his first Olympic team this spring by winning the U.S. national championship.
• Diana Lopez , 24
Also a former world champion in 2005, the youngest of the Lopez siblings will be making her Olympic debut in Beijing as a strong medal contender in the women's featherweight division.
The Lopez family is blogging from Beijing. See what they have to say so far at blogs.chron.com/lopezolympians
SUGAR LAND — They present quite a picture, gathered
atop a hill in an empty field alongside a busy highway: three brothers, one sister — an Olympic coach, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and two first-time Olympic team members.
They are the Lopez family of Sugar Land by way of New York and the former home of their parents, Managua, Nicaragua, and they are the first family of taekwondo.
But more to the point, they are, above all else, an American family.
They represent history. By qualifying for the 2008 Beijing Games, Steven, Mark and Diana Lopez, coached by Jean, their oldest brother, are the first set of three American siblings to compete at the same Olympic Games since 1904.
"I wish I were someone else at this moment to see in and to appreciate it, just to see people making history," Diana Lopez said. "I know that if I were to look in and see three siblings on the Olympic team with their oldest brother as head coach, I would think, man, that's so cool."
They represent perseverance. In 2000 and 2004, the Olympic trials process that produced celebration in 2008 was the source of frustration, disappointment and, to some observers, the question of whether the family could fulfill its Olympic dreams.
"In 2000, I was the only one that made it. It was the same thing in 2004," Steven Lopez said. "It was tough on Diana and Mark, and I almost felt guilty getting to go to the Olympics without them."
This year, especially, they represent capitalism. Collectively (AT&T, Hilton and Visa) and individually (Coca-Cola for Steven, the two-time Olympic gold medalist and four-time world champion), the Lopez family assaults the senses through print, TV, point of sale and Internet advertising in the same manner that they swarm opponents in their sport of choice.
"We tease Steven about that all the time," Mark Lopez said. "We tell him now that Diana and I are on the Olympic team, Mom is finally coming to watch us fight, and AT&T is approaching us and now Visa. But then we tell him the reason that we're here in the first place is because of his hard work."
Most of all, they represent a promise fulfilled.
"As first-generation citizens, we understand that whatever we go through, it's nothing to what our parents have overcome," Jean Lopez said. "They are our inspiration."
In 2000 and 2004, the family rallying cry was, "If one of us make it, we all make it."
On 8/8/08 at 8 p.m., all four Lopez siblings will march into the Bird's Nest stadium for the 2008 Olympics Opening Ceremony. They've made it.
Long road to Beijing
Steven, 29, arguably the greatest athlete in the sport's modern history, will compete in the men's welterweight division in search of a third gold medal. Mark, 26, and Diana, 24, who joined Steven as world champions in 2005, will compete in the men's and women's featherweight divisions, respectively. Jean Lopez, 35, will direct his siblings as head coach of the U.S. team.
They are the children of Julio and Ondina Lopez, who met in 1969 in their native Nicaragua. Julio Lopez attended a reunion at his former high school and met Ondina, who was in the 11th grade, and the couple was married three years later.
"I was working for the (central bank) and was worried about the economy," he said. "So I asked her, 'Have you ever thought about moving to United States?' She said she would like to, and so we got married and started a new life."
Julio Lopez came in 1972 to New York and his wife followed six months later, just before the deadly Managua earthquake of December 1972. Jean and Steven were born in New York before the family moved to Houston, where Julio Lopez found work as a structural engineer and where Mark and Diana were born.
An aficionado of the martial arts, Julio Lopez enrolled Jean in taekwondo classes at age 8 in 1981. Steven took up the sport two years later, and Mark and Diana joined in 1986 and 1988, respectively.
Jean was the ringleader and, from the beginning, the teacher.
"It was trial and error," he said. "They would remind us during the meetings (before competition) that, for example, that you can't punch somebody in the face, and so it would be, 'Hey Mark, Steven, you can't punch somebody in the face in this game.' But we got more sophisticated as we went along."
Jean Lopez became a student of the game, refining a fighting technique in which he used his front leg to clear space, similar to a boxer's jab.
He won a silver medal at the 1995 world championships but retired from competition in 1999 when his weight class was not picked for the 2000 Olympics.
Steven emerged as an international competitor in 1999, winning the Pan American Games, then the 2000 Olympic gold medal before adding the first of four consecutive world titles in 2001.
But the family continued to be at odds with the U.S. Taekwondo Union, the sport's national governing body, and Steven Lopez was the only sibling who qualified for the 2004 Olympics.
Also in 2004, the USTU was accused of financial improprieties and was decertified by the U.S. Olympic Committee, which installed a new group of administrators. USA Taekwondo, the new governing body, embraced the family, and all three siblings won gold medals at the 2005 world championships.
Steven Lopez qualified in 2007 for his third Olympics, and Mark and Diana followed suit this spring at the Olympic trials, where Diana defeated 2004 silver medalist Nia Abdallah of Houston in overtime in a match with a disputed outcome.
Different personalities
Between training sessions, commercial shoots and appearances, life has been a blur for the siblings since Mark and Diana qualified for the Olympics in the spring. On occasion, all four might show up at different times, traveling from different directions. But they are fiercely loyal to one another while remaining, in their way, unique souls.
The baby of the family often has the best perspective, so Diana Lopez's description of her three brothers stands for the moment as the definitive word.
"Jean is a man," she said. "Steven likes to take care of himself. He likes to go to spas and to get massages. (At the mention of the dreaded word "metrosexual," she said, "You said it. I didn't.") Marky is the stock market guy. Everybody would like Marky as a husband."
As for describing Diana, it's always best to consult a BFF.
"She's pretty clumsy, but that's a trait of good athletes," said Maria Morales, a friend since both were in middle school. "She always trips. I remember one time when we went to AstroWorld, and she got stuck in the UltraTwister ride. She did. Really."
Another example: As the family gathered for a recent photo shoot, posing barefoot in their official uniforms, Mark flipped his chewing gum on the ground. Diana, naturally, stepped on it.
But before you start laughing, Morales remembers another time when Lopez locked her keys in the car. She dispatched the window with a swift back kick, reached inside, got the keys, and the young women were on their way.
Diana, then, is the Terminator in heels, perhaps the best technician and, in Jean Lopez's mind, the fiercest competitor of the three.
Mark is the showman; he celebrates every victory with a roundoff handspring and a backflip.
Steven represents the apex of the Lopez fighting style. He has so successfully implemented Jean's theories that, for a time, it appeared the World Taekwondo Federation would institute a regulation known informally as the "Steven Lopez Rule" to inhibit his defensive strategies.
"They eventually decided not to change it, because so many people have made it part of their game, too," Steven said. "But they'll always be one step behind. Any time you try to replicate or do something somebody else does, you'll always be one step back. If they catch up, I'll be one step ahead. I'll always be one step ahead if they try to do what I do."
Listening to Mom
But all agree that the toughest Lopez of all is their mother, Ondina.
"The nurturing parent is my father. My mother is the rock," Mark Lopez said. "She's always in the back of my mind when I'm tired or don't want to work out," Mark Lopez said. "I hear her saying, 'Come on, Mark, there are people in tough situations who don't have food or have to work 14 hours a day. It's a great life you're leading, so take advantage of it. Go work out hard.' "
She has until recently been unwilling to watch her children fight and did not attend either of Steven's first two Olympic tournaments, but Ondina Lopez always has embraced the benefits that taekwondo has given her family.
"It's kept them out of trouble, and it's given them discipline," she said. "That has been so important."
Although only Steven retained his world title in 2007 and was the only Lopez to clinch a spot at the initial world qualifying tournament last fall, all three Lopez siblings have legitimate medal opportunities in Beijing.
"Diana, I think, is at her peak," Jean Lopez said. "Mark still has a lot of experience he has to gain. This may sound funny, but Steven still has a lot of things he can do to improve.
"Our goal for Beijing is not to win but to dominate. That is the challenge. I want to see the perfect day without leaving anything to drama or sudden death. Each is capable of that."
The road beyond
Steven and Diana, a junior at the University of Houston-Downtown who hopes to earn a degree in childhood education, live at home. Mark, who has a degree in finance from the University of St. Thomas, lives nearby as does Jean with his wife, Tabetha, and children Alyxandra, Diego and Andres.
Diana hopes to continue work on her degree after the Olympic crush subsides.
Mark said he will consider renewing his real estate license, but he hopes, like Steven, to remain in the sport as long as possible.
Steven Lopez is toying with the idea of trying to compete in 2012, at age 33, in the heavyweight division. But he also has ambitions beyond another stint on People magazine's list of America's most beautiful people.
"Until recently, without putting my personal life too much out there, my relationships have suffered outside my family," he said. "There are things, when I look back on them, that really (stink) because someone didn't understand or have the mind frame or the patience to wait it out."
But the Lopez family's affinity for perseverance is likely to prevail in that area, as it has in others.
"It is due to perseverance that we're here today," he said. "If there is a message that we can bring out that can transcend sport, it is to look at what this family has been able to do.
"I'm as excited as I can be as an older brother, as a teammate and as a fellow Olympian. I experienced it with Jean as my coach in 2004, living in the Olympic Village. To do it three times over and to walk into the Opening Ceremony, we can look at each other and say, 'We're here. We did it.' "
(Story from the Houston Chronicle, USA, on July 27, 2008)
Seminar in Zagreb:
http://www.taekwondo-activ.com/
SEMINAR SPONSORED BY U.S. EMBASSY IN CROATIA and DALEKOVOD d.d.
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