Taiwanese Olympic medalist Lo Chia-ling was disqualified from the US Open Taekwondo Championships last week after missing weight by 100 grams, even after cutting her hair in a last-ditch effort to qualify, her coach said yesterday.
The Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist was set to compete in her first competition of the year in Las Vegas, but as the Friday to Sunday event started, she was not seen competing, even as Taiwanese athletes won medals in the men’s team recognized poomsae and women’s freestyle poomsae.
Lo’s coach Liu Tsung-ta yesterday wrote online that Lo had been disqualified after failing to make weight at pre-tournament weigh-in.
Photo: CNA.
On the day of the weigh-in, which ran from 10am to noon, Liu said he asked Lo to report her weight shortly after 7am, and when she said she was still 300g over the limit for her under-57kg class, he asked her to go for a run.
After the run, Lo said she was still 200g above weight, Liu said, adding that she must have assumed athletes could weigh in naked, as is allowed in competitions in Taiwan.
However, when Lo and Liu arrived at the weigh-in at 11:45am, an official told them that competitors could not weigh in naked or even remove articles of clothing to make their weight class.
As a result, Lo cut her hair in an effort to qualify, but still missed weight by 100g, Liu said.
By then it was already past noon, and tournament officials began leaving the facility, he said.
Liu said that Lo had been wrong to “take chances” at the weigh-in, but that the responsibility was ultimately his.
“A coach has to take responsibility for an athlete’s problems, and when I return [to Taiwan] I’ll submit a report reviewing what happened,” Liu said.
“I’m sorry for letting everybody down,” he added.
In a Facebook post yesterday, Lo apologized to her coach, her team and her supporters, saying she would “always remember the lesson of this 0.1kg.”
“I have three more competitions this month, and will work even harder,” she said.
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