Sexual abuse: Taekwondo Olympic champion banned for life

The US Center for SafeSport and the USA Taekwondo Association announced this at the weekend. According to media reports, the 39-year-old is said to have sexually abused the then 2000-year-old Taekwondo fighter Nina Zampetti in 14.

Zampetti is “proud and relieved” because she is finally believed. “After all these years of trying to explain to my family that he is not who he says he is, the truth has finally come to light,” said the now 32-year-old in an interview with the daily newspaper USA Today .

Five-time world champion Lopez, who denies all allegations and will appeal the ban according to his lawyer Howard Jacobs, is said to have first approached Zampetti when she was ten years old. In April, his brother and trainer Jean Lopez was banned for life for similar allegations; the ban has been temporarily suspended following his appeal.

Lopez brothers are “sexual predators” Four more women have now accused the Lopez brothers of sexual assault. Steve's ex-girlfriend Mandy Meloon, who finished third in the 1997 and 2005 World Cup, accused the now 39-year-old of breaking into her apartment after their separation in 2004 and abusing her. Previously, physical violence had occurred several times in their six-year relationship.

Meloon and three other victims have sued the Lopez brothers as well as the USOC, USA Taekwondo and the US Center for SafeSport. All of these organizations, the indictment says, knew that the Lopez brothers were “sexual predators,” yet they continued to send young women and girls with them to events and training camps around the world.

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Sexual abuse: Taekwondo Olympic champion banned for life

Two-time Olympic taekwondo champion Steven Lopez has been banned for life for sexually abusing a child.

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