It's been a rough Olympics for taekwondo, but this just takes it up another notch.
In the photo above is Cuban taekwondo champion Angel Matos and the guy on the right is referee Chakir Chelbat. Needless to say, Matos had what I'd politely call a "disagreement" with Chelbat.
What happened was Chelbat disqualified Matos in the bronze medal match because Matos took more than the alloted one minute of injury time after he hurt his leg. That's kind of ridiculous that Chelbat did that, but it's not exactly worthy of a kick to the face.
Perhaps even better is that Matos' coach, Leudis Gonzalez, refused to apologize for Matos' actions and criticized Chelbat in the process, saying he was "too strict."
Here's the Zapruder version of the video clip (because YouTube sucks) courtesy of our good friend The World of Isaac.
I think Matos should just be glad he didn't get charged with a felony. By the way, if he's looking for a new job, I'm sure the Chinese would be happy to make him a Tibet-based riot cop.
As I said earlier, taekwondo judging has been a bit of a problem these Olympics. American bronze medalist Steven Lopez said a judge showed "human error" in a match he lost that would have gotten him into the gold medal final, and China's two-time gold medalist Chen Zhong was initially declared the winner of a quarterfinal match only to have the result overturned.
Just so you know, neither Lopez nor Zhong kicked their refs in the face. Which was probably a good move.
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