Strong family ties takes Lopez clan to Olympics

Steven Lopez was only 5 years old when he began taekwondo training with older brother Jean in their family's garage in Sugar Land, Texas.A few years later his younger brother, Mark, joined them. Then little sister, Diana, started. The four siblings still train together, but on a much grander stage now. Steven, Mark and Diana will be competing for the U.S. in taekwondo at the Beijing Olympics in August, while Jean will serve as the U.S. team's co-head coach. Steven, Mark and Diana became the first three American siblings to qualify for the same Games since 1904. Steven competes as a welterweight and his siblings are each in the featherweight division. Jean has them sparring two-to-five hours a day in addition to conditioning work in preparation for the Games."The love and the passion that we have for each other, I think, gives us a huge advantage over all of our competitors," said Mark, 26. This isn't the family's first trip to the Olympics. Steven, 29, won the very first gold medal for taekwondo in the sport's Olympic debut at the 2000 Sydney Games and followed that with another gold in Athens in 2004. Still, he didn't feel like he had made his third Olympics team until he knew his siblings had made it as well."I was everything they needed me to be ... their masseuse, their water boy; any advice I could give them; I was there for them," Steven said.The siblings have been supporting one another in the sport since their father, Julio, a martial arts enthusiast, first encouraged them to learn taekwondo. He immigrated to the United States from Nicaragua in 1972.The family's athletic success has made them role models in the Hispanic community."In Hispanic culture, I think family comes first and foremost," Mark said. "Us all making the Olympic team just confirms that."Diana served as an alternate to the 2004 Sydney Olympic Games, after finishing second in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials. Mark placed third at the trials that year. Even with years of international experience, the Lopezes admit they get a little nervous preparing to compete on sport's largest stage."It's the biggest show on earth and there is a certain pressure to it, but what I tell myself and my siblings is to keep things in perspective; make it count," Jean, 36, said. "Who knows what we'll be doing four years from now."The siblings' mother, Ondina, who will accompany Julio to Beijing, might be the most nervous while watching her children compete in the contact sport."To say she gets nervous is an understatement." Jean said. "(She gets) tension when we don't communicate with them about what's going on. Since my siblings are usually so tired from training, I usually do that."In training, the siblings have added a new member to their "family," 17-year-old Olympic teammate Charlotte Craig."I feel like their youngest sister," she said. "Whenever I see them working out, it really motivates me to be my best."Diana, 24, said she's happy that Charlotte can see the friendly abuse Diana has had to endure growing up with three fighting brothers. Being the youngest, Steven said, makes Charlotte easier to playfully make fun of, especially when the young taekwondo champ is less than graceful."She can do doubles and triples and hook kicks, but walking up the stairs, she fumbles," Steven said.The team plans to march in the Opening Ceremony in Beijing on Aug. 8. The taekwondo competition begins Aug. 20. Mark, known for being a showman, said spectators should expect a celebratory roundhouse kick from him should he or his siblings medal in Beijing."It's the best kick you'll ever see in your life," he said.(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)