Angel Matos talking about his unforgettable experience

2:35:00 PM Tkd kwan 4 Comments

 10 years after Beijing Olympic games 2008, The Cuban Taekwondo athlete talked about his bad experience in his last Taekwondo participation, and according to Matos, He still remembers that event with regret.

He said that he still regrets what he did till now, because he did not want his sports career to end this way.

According to Matos, he had trained very well for Beijing 2008 better than Sydney 2000 where he won the gold medal, and he felt good physically and mentally.

He won the first fight, then he lost 0-1 against South Korea’s Dongmin Cha, but he got to have a chance in the loser’s bracket until he was fighting for the bronze medal against Kazachstan’s Arman Chilmanov. 

According to him ,They tried to buy him off that day so that he would lose the fight, his trainer and he were both offered money and we refused. 

We do not have any idea if what he claims was real or not.

“That’s why he still say that they bought the referee off (Swede Chakir Chelbat), because ever since the match began, he bothered him. Anyway, he was still in the fight because he had already beaten this rival and was confident he would win again, but in reality he didn’t have a chance to, the referee disqualified him. Matos was ahead 3-2 and he received a 4 stitch injury on my right foot. The Kazach realized that Matos was bleeding, told the referee and the latter called for the doctor.

“When Matos was being bandaged up, He looked over at the main table and saw a federation official giving a sign to the referee for him to lift the rival’s hand because bandaging up my wound was apparently taking too long. That’s why Matos was disqualified, but in hindsight, Matos remember that in his fight against Slovenia’s Marcel More in Sydney, he fractured his hand and it took a minute and a half to get bandaged up, then they continued the fight as if nothing had happened.

Then came what everyone has seen, it was really hard because it was his last Olympics, four years that were really tough for me because of his age, and it’s something he still regret until this very day because he didn’t want his sports career to end this way. he felt really bad because of all the sacrifice he had made and because he even wanted to go on and fight another year to reach the World Championships, but he was banned.”

''In that moment, a shadow fell over the dark-skinned, almost 2-meters-tall man’s face and it’s clear that his attitude back then still pains him, even though Fidel Castro himself publicly defended him at first.''

Matos is currently working as a trainer in a gym in the capital with children aged 9-10 and 10-11, that he lives proud of his three children (two girls and a boy).

Watch the fight again here 👇               

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2Yl8XmQobo&t=3s