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Jean Lopez

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Jean López (born August 31, 1973) is an American Taekwondo athlete and coach.

Biography

Lopez is a 1991 graduate of Kempner High School.

He was a four-time member of the U.S. National Taekwondo Team. In 1995 Lopez won a silver medal at the 1995 Taekwondo World Championships.[1]

Lopez coached the USA Taekwondo Olympic team from 2004-2016.[2]

Sexual misconduct investigations

USA Taekwondo began investigating Lopez for sexual misconduct in 2015.[3] Nevertheless, he was still allowed to go to the Rio Olympics as a coach.[3] His case was turned over to SafeSport when it opened in March 2017.[3]

On April 3, 2018, 13 months later, Lopez was found guilty by the United States Center for SafeSport of sexual misconduct involving a minor, and was banned from USA Taekwondo.[4] SafeSport found that Lopez had assaulted Mandy Meloon (two-time bronze medal winner at world championships), Heidi Gilbert (who won a gold medal in her weight class in the 2002 Pan American Games in Quito, Ecuador), and a third woman.[5][6][2] It concluded: "This matter concerns a decades-long pattern of sexual misconduct by an older athlete/coach abusing his power to groom, manipulate and, ultimately, sexually abuse younger female athletes. Given the number of incidents reported over a span of several years and by multiple reporting parties, most of whom have no reasonable motive to fabricate an allegation – much less multiple, distinct incidents – of misconduct, the totality of the circumstances clearly shows a recurrent pattern of behavior on the part of Jean."[3]

The ban was overturned by an arbitrator in January 2019.[3] "SafeSport really hasn’t had it together. People say, 'I’m scared to speak up.' This is why. It's sad the [U.S. Olympic Committee] and SafeSport have done this to us" Gilbert said.[3] Two complainants said they stood by their claims that Lopez raped them.[7] The decision was handed down without any explanation and a lawyer for the victims called it "yet another example of the failure by SafeSport to protect athletes from sexual abuse."[7][8]

References

  1. ^ "Lopez family Archives". The Saturday Evening Post.
  2. ^ a b "Former USA Taekwondo Coach Banned From The Sport For Sexual Misconduct".
  3. ^ a b c d e f Axon, Nancy Armour and Rachel. "Jean Lopez able to coach taekwondo again after arbitrator lifts ban for sexual misconduct". USA TODAY.
  4. ^ "Olympic taekwondo coach Jean Lopez banned for sexual misconduct with a minor". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2018-04-04.
  5. ^ These Women Are Fighting to Expose Olympic Taekwondo Legends as Predators
  6. ^ Axon, Nancy Armour and Rachel. "SafeSport disputes characterization of what led it to drop Jean Lopez ban". USA TODAY.
  7. ^ a b "Taekwondo coach Jean Lopez has ban lifted". ESPN.com. January 8, 2019.
  8. ^ Axon, Nancy Armour and Rachel. "Report: Sixth woman says she was sexually abused by Olympic taekwondo champ Steven Lopez". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2021-07-23.
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