Lopez kin ready to fight for taekwondo gold, but third sibling won't be there to complete trifecta

Having scored a medal hat trick at the Beijing Olympics, the Lopez family will have to settle for a possible double in London after one sibling failed to make the American taekwondo squad for the 2012 Summer Games.

While Steven and Diana punched their tickets to London with wins at the US Olympic trials at the weekend, the celebrations were muted for the Lopez clan as younger brother Mark fell short in his bid to qualify.

"It was obviously bittersweet," Steven said on Monday. "My brother Mark came very close but he narrowly missed making the Olympic team."

Steven, Mark and Diana, who are coached by older brother Jean, put their stamp on the Beijing Games where they became the first three siblings to make the same US Olympic team since 1904 when brothers Edward, Richard and William Tritschler all qualified in gymnastics but failed to win a medal.

Despite Mark's narrow loss to Terrence Jennings in the closing seconds of their bout on Saturday, there will be no shortage of people ready to carry the Lopez family flag.

Steven (80 kg division) and Diana (57 kg) will be accompanied by Jean in London while Mark has stepped into the role of sparring partner.

After taking gold at the 2000 and 2004 Summer Games and winning five consecutive world championship titles, Steven has rarely felt the sting of defeat, though a bronze in Beijing at the 2008 Olympics still burns.

"I would like to think that for every Olympics I train as hard as I possibly can and do everything within my control to achieve my goal, which is to go out there and give my best performance, which I believe is good enough to win a gold medal for us," said 33-year-old Steven. "I think I am a little more motivated than I would be.

"You never know what can happen so I am training extra hard ... All I'm thinking about is going back out there and getting that gold medal."

A day after securing their Olympic spots, the Lopezes were back in the gym with Steven pulling away briefly to participate in a conference call.

For the Lopezes, taekwondo is not just the family passion, it is also the family business.

They operate the Lopez Taekwondo Academy in their hometown of Sugar Land, Texas, and another in Houston, which have become a mecca for those wanting to learn the Lopez family style of the Korean martial art.

It is here where Steven and Diana will put in weeks of grueling training under the watchful eye of Master Jean.

Despite decades of punishing combat, Steven said he is training just as hard for the London Games as he did for his first Olympics, the experience in Beijing a constant reminder of how things can turn in an instant.

"I did recognize that at any given moment, anything can happen and things could be taken away from me," said Steven. "Two Olympic gold medals and the last five world championships it had become almost, where I thought, automatic and in Beijing some things didn't work out. "My sister took a bronze and my younger brother took a silver and it was almost business as usual where I would go out there and do my job and win the gold medal.

"Well, things didn't happen that way."

Reuters