2791042840_bd4123a23b Originally uploaded by AccessWinnipeg
During the bronze medal Tae Kwon Do match, Ángel Matos received a life time ban for kicking a Swedish referee in the face. His coach, Leudis González, also received a ban for having no apology for the actions of his athlete.
Matos was winning, 3-2, in the second round, when he fell to the mat after being hit by his opponent, Kazakhstan’s Arman Chilmanov. He remained on the floor awaiting medical attention. Fighters are given 1 minute of injury time and he was disqualified when his time ran out.
The outraged Matos immediately got up (obviously wasn’t that injured at all!!) and gave the referee a kick to the face. When judges jumped in to break up the conflict he threw a punch at one of them. As Matos was being escorted out he spat on the floor.
“He was too strict,” González said, referring to the decision to disqualify Matos. Afterward, he charged that the match was fixed, accusing the Kazakhs of offering him money.
Matos and González received a lifetime ban from all championships sanctioned by the World Taekwondo Federation and that all Matos’s records at the Beijing Games would be erased.
Below is the youtube video, watch it before NBC takes it down.
