One (-at-least-half) step closer to a full and permanent disqualification of the USA from the Olympic movement...

According to a lawsuit, you can now add taekwondo to gymnastics and swimming as sports beset by the United States Sexual Assault Olympic Committee...

But the Deadspin report states this goes even further -- and possibly into TRAFFICKING the athletes, and pedophilia!

Jean and Steven Lopez were referred to as "the first family of Taekwondo".  Jean is Steven's coach.  Steven has two Olympic gold medals (Under 60 kg in 2000, Under 80 kg in 2004), an Olympic bronze medal (Under 80 kg is 2008), and five Taekwondo World Championships in the 2000's.

Jean has been thrown out of Taekwondo by the sanctioning bodies for LIFE due to the results of an investigation into at least sexual harassment of numerous female Taekwondo athletes over a span of decades.

Steven has been placed under a suspension, pending such banishment for life.

The lawsuit refers to a number of underage athletes being ferried around by the US Taekwondo Federation and the USOC to Jean and Steven, where underage grooming and sex were involved.  The period alleged goes for at least two decades, and encompasses the entire Olympic career of Steven.  (The lawsuit goes from 1996-97 all the way to the present.)

Here's the most damning part, from the Deadspin article:

"If these athletes wanted to stay on Team USA and fulfill their childhood dreams to compete as Olympians for the United States, they had no choice but to submit to the Lopez brothers’ sexual demands.

If they refused to do so, they were benched, suspended, or kicked off Team USA by the Lopez brothers, the USOC, and USA TKD."

I've said it, and I've said it without snark -- especially as it relates to the female gymnasts.  How many of the "next Mary Lous" never got the chance because they were blackballed for saying no???

How many girls were thrown out of these sports (and others) for refusing to drop and spread?

There are currently four defendants, identified in the Deadspin article.  I'll just give Cliffs' Notes on each and their allegations:

• One began to be groomed at 13 when she moved to the USOC training center, witnessed another minor athlete being raped then, and was raped herself by another man (also permanently banned from Taekwondo) at 15.  Either this incident or another was filmed.  At 17, another encounter got her pregnant, for which she was forced to get an abortion.  Digitally raped at 16, sexually assaulted all the way until she was raped at 24 by one of the Lopez', and the other threw her off the team when she refused further and ran, naked, down the street to escape.
• A second was sexually assaulted at the Pan-Am Championships in 2002.  She was sexually assaulted by Jean at the World Championships in 2003.  She was raped in a taxi afterward.   In 2006, she was allegedly told by the CEO of Taekwondo USA not to report anything Jean did to her.
• A third was raped at a 2006 meet in Germany.  It was made clear afterward that any advancement she would have in taekwondo was contingent on sex with at least one of the Lopez'.  She was raped to pregnancy in 2011, forced to get an abortion, and reported the incidents to USA Taekwondo in 2015.
• A fourth was actually warned by her local coaches as to the grooming-for-sex habits of the Lopez' before she moved to have them as her coaches.  Her parents tried to protect her, but the Lopez' abused her until she relented and allowed them to have their way with her -- including forcing her to fight men without requisite protective equipment.  By 17, she had relented, and was in a sexual relationship (one of at least three underage teens at the time) with Steven.  Raped through a drugged drink in 2008, another attempt alleged in 2013 against her and another party....

Basically, they're going to attempt to prove that the United States Olympic Committee traffics children for sex, as a function of the selection process of who gets to represent the country in the Games.

How much more, Mr. Fencer from 1976?  (A Reddit meme, in that the IOC President had to have his event and medal mentioned after every appearance...)  How much more before the USA is GONE from the Olympic movement??

We are now well past the point that, as much as the drug situation in Russia is state-sponsored, one now has to take a look at the American Olympic movement as a sum total, and recognize a very probable state-sponsored sexual-assault scheme, using the hopes and dreams of Olympic glory...