Taekwondo at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's +67 kg

Taekwondo at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Men			Women
	58 kg			49 kg
	68 kg			57 kg
	80 kg			67 kg
	+80 kg			+67 kg

The women's +67 kg competition in taekwondo at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing took place in the Beijing Science and Technology University Gymnasium on August 23. A total of 16 women competed in this event, limited to fighters whose body weight is more than 67 kilograms. Preliminaries started at 9:00, quarterfinals at 15:00, semifinals at 17:00, repechage at 18.00, bronze medal bouts at 19.00 and the final at 20:00. Two bronze medals were awarded at the Taekwondo competitions.

The main bracket consists of a single elimination tournament, culminating in the gold medal match. A repechage is used to determine the bronze medal winners. Every competitor who loses to one of the two finalists competes in the repechage, another single-elimination competition. Each semifinal loser faces the last remaining repechage competitor from the opposite half of the bracket in a bronze medal match.

The quarterfinal match between Sarah Stevenson of Great Britain and China's Chen Zhong on August 23 was plagued by controversy. Chen Zhong had led 1-0 through most of the match but 4 seconds before the end, Stevenson landed a clear strike to the face of her opponent. However, only half the judges recorded the hit which was thus not registered, dashing Stevenson's olympic hopes of gaining her the two points that would have secured her a quick victory. Stevenson's coach was furious and protested to the referee and judges, but initially Zhong was awarded the match. The British team protested for over an hour and on seeing the clear video footage of the strike to the face, unprecedently in the sport of Taekwondo, the judges decision was repealed and it was Stevenson who went through to the semi-finals against Maria del Rosario Espinoza of Mexico. ^[1] Espinoza however, with a disoriented crowd looking on at the loss of their Chinese gold medal hope, secured a clear victory over Stevenson and went on to win gold, whilst Stevenson took bronze in the bronze medal match against the Egyptian Noha Abd Rabo.

On announcing the change of result in the quarter final, the tournament director said:

"The competition supervisory board has looked into this matter deeply, has made video analysis which has been open to all the referees and judges. In applying paragraph two of page 64 of the competition rules of the World Taekwondo Federation we have to change this result and we have to declare the British player as winner. We are very sorry to the spectators of China but justice is first. Thank you for understanding."

Contents 1 Medalists 2 Tournament results 2.1 Main bracket 2.2 Repechage 3 References

Medalists

Gold	Maria del Rosario Espinoza Mexico (MEX)
Silver	Nina Solheim Norway (NOR)
Bronze	Sarah Stevenson Great Britain (GBR)
	Natália Falavigna Brazil (BRA)

Tournament results

Legend

• PTG — Won by Points Gap
• SUP — Won by Superiority

Main bracket

Preliminary round				Quarterfinals				Semifinals				Gold medal match
Nina Solheim (NOR)	9
Noha Abd Rabo (EGY)	3			Nina Solheim (NOR)	3
Che Chew Chan (MAS)	5			Che Chew Chan (MAS)	1
Evgeniya Karimova (UZB)	4							Nina Solheim (NOR)	(SUP) 2
Lorena Benitez (ECU)	0							Natália Falavigna (BRA)	2
Carmen Marton (AUS)	2			Carmen Marton (AUS)	2
Natália Falavigna (BRA)	3			Natália Falavigna (BRA)	5
Kyriaki Kouvari (GRE)	1											Nina Solheim (NOR)	1
Khaoula Ben Hamza (TUN)	0											Maria Espinoza (MEX)	3
Maria Espinoza (MEX)	4			Maria Espinoza (MEX)	4
Karolina Kedzierska (SWE)	5			Karolina Kedzierska (SWE)	2
Rosana Simon (ESP)	4							Maria Espinoza (MEX)	4
Chen Zhong (CHN)	3							Sarah Stevenson (GBR)	1
Adriana Carmona (VEN)	1			Chen Zhong (CHN)	1 1
Nadin Dawani (JOR)	2			Sarah Stevenson (GBR)	0 2
Sarah Stevenson (GBR)	3

Repechage

	Round 1					Bronze medal match
						Natália Falavigna (BRA)		5
	Karolina Kedzierska (SWE)		5			Karolina Kedzierska (SWE)		2
	Khaoula Ben Hamza (TUN)		4

	Round 1					Bronze medal match
						Noha Abd Rabo (EGY)		1
	Noha Abd Rabo (EGY)		5			Sarah Stevenson (GBR)		5
	Che Chew Chan (MAS)		1

References

• Competition format