(I’m No) Angel Matos, Cuba’s leading Taekwondo athelete, handed in a perfect tort performance his week — completing a flawless assault and battery on a referee with difficult aggravated elements. Lawyers gave him a 9.7 — taking away only for the failure to leave the jurisdiction before service of process. As the pictures below show, Matos single handedly introduced a torts competition into the games when he kicked ref Chakir Chelbat in the head for an unpopular call.
Matos was unhappy with a ruling by Chelbat of Sweden in the match, which Matos was winning 3-2. With only 1:02 left in the match with Kazakhstan’s Arman Chilmanov, Matos fell to the mat after a kick waiting for medical attention. Chelbat, however, disqualified him because fighters are only allowed one minute — prompting Matos to confronted the ref and push him. He then delivered a kick to the head, spat on the floor, and stomped out. Chelbat was not seriously injured, though he may require stitches.
Rather than expressing horror, Matos coach Leudis Gonzalez seemed to excuse his conduct, simply noting that the ref “was too strict.” He then charged the match was fixed, accusing the Kazakhs of offering him a bribe.
While both will have a chance to contest, officials announced their intention to ban both Matos and his coach for life in what the WTF called “a strong violation of the spirit of taekwondo and the Olympics.”
For the pictures, click here.
I love that the organization is actually called the WTF, because that’s pretty much what I said when I heard about this story.
WTF, indeed.
rafflaw –
Looks like ‘Mann Coulter’ is at it again … The fact that this pig dislikes you so much should serve as a compliment. Just ignore him/her. I do.
Some people’s opinions matter so little, and here’s a great example.
rafflaw: ask your mommy to wipe you.
Great professional response Marth h. I would expect you to go right to the facts of the matter and of course, in your world, that means slurs, insults and non-sensical responses. That latest response is just one more example of your high quality work here on this blog.
rafflaw; go whine to your mommy.
Marthh,
You are a piece of work. This Cuban athlete and the coach have been banned for life from the sport and you somehow accuse the Democrats of aiding and abetting this kind of behavior. You should be ashamed of yourself.
Bet he gets a gold medal from Fidel Castro himself for his “brave standing up to the corrupt capitalist judge”
I would also bet that Rep. Maxine Waters, who has an obvious crush on Fidel, will fly to Cuba to congratulate him on his performance.
Then we can wait for Rep. John Conyers, Wexler, Murtha, Pelosi, and Hoyer to demand time for a 10 minute floor speech denouncing what must have been America’s fault for this bizarre behavior by a Cuban. No doubt they will say it is the preassure America puts the poor Cubans under that resulted in this.