Photo credit should read BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP via Getty Images
Taekwondo stars Steven López and Jean López have been accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women.
[CW: The following article details accusations of sexual assault]
According to a comprehensive report in The Daily Beast six women have accused US Olympic taekwondo champion Steven López of sexual assault. The latest accusation comes from a Canadian woman who says that López drugged and gang raped her in a Dallas hotel in May 2010.
In taekwondo circles Steven López is a superstar. He holds two Olympic golds (2000, 2004), and a bronze (2008), and five world championships. His brother Mark and sister Diana have also represented the US in taekwondo at the Olympics. His other brother Jean is a coach who has worked with US Taekwondo.
Jean López has also been accused of sexual misconduct.
The first public accusations against Steven and Jean were reported in 2017. Those accusations came from four female taekwondo athletes, some of whom the Daily Beast described as “the most promising American female martial art athletes of their generation.”
Those accusers said either Steven López, Jean López, or both, sexually abused them. The women also said that the López brothers threatened to withhold their progress in the sport if they did not have sex with them.
The latest person to accuse Steven López of rape said she first met López after traveling from Canada to Las Vegas to attend a Taekwondo U.S. Open event in 2010. She was very familiar with López, whose family had been profiled in People magazine and appeared on the Tonight Show. She said she took a picture with López and thought that would be her only interaction with him.
She said she ran into López later, who then invited her to dinner. She claimed that after dinner she went to López’s hotel room and engaged in consensual sex. After returning home to Canada the woman said she remained in contact with López and that she flew out to meet him in Dallas a few months later.
The woman said that in Dallas she remembers meeting López in a hotel and drinking a few sips of a blueberry-Gatorade-vodka drink he had given her. She said after sipping the drink she felt ill, but that López then lead her to a different hotel room where two other men were waiting.
“I began to have a feeling that something very bad was going to happen,” said the woman, who claimed López told her, “It’s okay” before he started to kiss her. The woman said at this point she lost feeling in her body and she could not move her hands. She said she remembers López and one of the men raping her while the other watched. She said she woke up the next morning in her own hotel room with a bad headache.
One of the earlier accusers also claimed López drugged and gang raped her in 2008. That accuser had known López since she joined his Elite Taekwondo studio in Sugarland, TX when she was 13-years-old. She said she was 18 when Lopez assaulted her.
The original four accusers, along with a fifth, sued the López Brothers and USA Taekwondo in April 2018 (per USA Today). That case was referred to the US Center for SafeSport who then gave the brothers a lifetime ban from USA Taekwondo. In response World Taekwondo also banned the brothers.
SafeSport allows all athletes to contest rulings via an arbitration process. After the López brothers sought arbitration, attorneys for the accusers decided not to subject their clients to multiple cross-examinations. They instead asked SafeSport to depose the women in connection with the lawsuit and that those depositions be used as evidence in the arbitration hearings.
SafeSport declined to do this. A three-person arbitration panel lifted Steven López’s US Taekwondo ban in December 2018 and Jean López’s US Taekwondo ban in January 2019, citing lack of evidence. World Taekwondo has kept its suspensions in place, ending Steven López’s chances at competing in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
After the arbitration ruling the López brothers, who have never been criminally charged in relation to these accusations, claimed they had been totally vindicated. In remarks after the ruling Steven said, “I knew I was innocent. Hearing that affirmation from the judge, was a huge sigh of relief.” Jean López was quoted saying something similar to a local news outlet. On a Catholic Sports Radio podcast Steven said the ruling was a “Victory for the kingdom [of God]”.
Survivors of sexual assault can find support via the following organizations:
US – Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN)’s National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). RAINN also has an online chat service.
Love is Respect, 1-866-331-9474. They can also be reached via online chat or by texting LOVEIS to 22522.
End Rape on Campus (EROC), 1-424-777-EROC (3762).
Canada – Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime, 1-877-232-2610.
UK – UK Says No More.
Rest of the World – International Rape Crisis Hotlines.