Taekwondo at the 2008 Summer Olympics - Women's +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the clear video footage of the strike to the face, unprecedently in the sport of Taekwondo, the judges decision was repealed and it was Stevenson who went through to the semi-finals against Maria del Rosario Espinoza of Mexico. [cite web|title=Olympics: Stevenson wins bronze after day of high controversy|publisher=The Guardian|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/aug/23/olympics2008.olympicstaekwondo1|date=2008-08-23|accessdate=2008-08-23] 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."

Medalists

Tournament results

;Legend
*PTG — Won by Points Gap
*SUP — Won by Superiority

Main bracket

16TeamBracket-Compact-NoSeeds
RD1=Preliminary round
RD4=Gold medal match
team-width=185
RD1-team01=flagIOCathlete|Nina Solheim|NOR|2008 Summer
RD1-score01=9
RD1-team02=flagIOCathlete|Noha Abd Rabo|EGY|2008 Summer
RD1-score02=3
RD1-team03=flagIOCathlete|Che Chew Chan|MAS|2008 Summer
RD1-score03=5
RD1-team04=flagIOCathlete|Evgeniya Karimova|UZB|2008 Summer
RD1-score04=4
RD1-team05=flagIOCathlete|Lorena Benitez|ECU|2008 Summer
RD1-score05=0
RD1-team06=flagIOCathlete|Carmen Marton|AUS|2008 Summer
RD1-score06=2
RD1-team07=flagIOCathlete|Natália Falavigna|BRA|2008 Summer
RD1-score07=3
RD1-team08=flagIOCathlete|Kyriaki Kouvari|GRE|2008 Summer
RD1-score08=1
RD1-team09=flagIOCathlete|Khaoula Ben Hamza|TUN|2008 Summer
RD1-score09=0
RD1-team10=flagIOCathlete|Maria Espinoza|MEX|2008 Summer
RD1-score10=4
RD1-team11=flagIOCathlete|Karolina Kedzierska|SWE|2008 Summer
RD1-score11=5
RD1-team12=flagIOCathlete|Rosana Simon|ESP|2008 Summer
RD1-score12=4
RD1-team13=flagIOCathlete|Chen Zhong|CHN|2008 Summer
RD1-score13=3
RD1-team14=flagIOCathlete|Adriana Carmona|VEN|2008 Summer
RD1-score14=1
RD1-team15=flagIOCathlete|Nadin Dawani|JOR|2008 Summer
RD1-score15=2
RD1-team16=flagIOCathlete|Sarah Stevenson|GBR|2008 Summer
RD1-score16=3

RD2-team01=flagIOCathlete|Nina Solheim|NOR|2008 Summer
RD2-score01=3
RD2-team02=flagIOCathlete|Che Chew Chan|MAS|2008 Summer
RD2-score02=1
RD2-team03=flagIOCathlete|Carmen Marton|AUS|2008 Summer
RD2-score03=2
RD2-team04=flagIOCathlete|Natália Falavigna|BRA|2008 Summer
RD2-score04=5
RD2-team05=flagIOCathlete|Maria Espinoza|MEX|2008 Summer
RD2-score05=4
RD2-team06=flagIOCathlete|Karolina Kedzierska|SWE|2008 Summer
RD2-score06=2
RD2-team07=flagIOCathlete|Chen Zhong|CHN|2008 Summer
RD2-score07= 1 1
RD2-team08=flagIOCathlete|Sarah Stevenson|GBR|2008 Summer
RD2-score08= 0 2

RD3-team01=flagIOCathlete|Nina Solheim|NOR|2008 Summer
RD3-score01=(SUP) 2
RD3-team02=flagIOCathlete|Natália Falavigna|BRA|2008 Summer
RD3-score02=2
RD3-team03=flagIOCathlete|Maria Espinoza|MEX|2008 Summer
RD3-score03=4
RD3-team04=flagIOCathlete|Sarah Stevenson|GBR|2008 Summer
RD3-score04=1

RD4-team01= flagIOCathlete|Nina Solheim|NOR|2008 Summer
RD4-score01= 1
RD4-team02="'flagIOCathlete|Maria Espinoza|MEX|2008 Summer
RD4-score02= 3

Repechage

3TeamBracket
RD1=Round 1
RD2=Bronze medal match

RD1-team1= flagIOCathlete|Karolina Kedzierska|SWE|2008 Summer |RD1-score1=5
RD1-team2= flagIOCathlete|Khaoula Ben Hamza|TUN|2008 Summer |RD1-score2= 4

RD2-team1= flagIOCathlete|Natália Falavigna|BRA|2008 Summer |RD2-score1= 5
RD2-team2= flagIOCathlete|Karolina Kedzierska|SWE|2008 Summer|RD2-score2= 2

3TeamBracket
RD1=Round 1
RD2=Bronze medal match

RD1-team1=flagIOCathlete|Noha Abd Rabo|EGY|2008 Summer |RD1-score1=5
RD1-team2= flagIOCathlete|Che Chew Chan|MAS|2008 Summer |RD1-score2 =1

RD2-team2= flagIOCathlete|Sarah Stevenson|GBR|2008 Summer |RD2-score2=5
RD2-team1= flagIOCathlete|Noha Abd Rabo|EGY|2008 Summer |RD2-score1=1

References

* [http://en.beijing2008.cn/sports/taekwondo/n214432203.shtml Competition format]