Steven Lopez is a taekwondo player born on November 9, 1978 in New York City to Ondina and Julio Lopez. He graduated from Kempner High School in Sugar Land, Texas in 1997, where he was a member of the National Honor Society.
His elder brother Jean, who is currently the head coach of the American National team for the 2008 Olympics, was a silver medalist at the World Championships and a two-time Pan American Champion. His younger brother, Mark, and younger sister, Diana, were also National Team members and 2005 World Champions.
His father, a great sports enthusiast, inspired Steven Lopez to take up taekwondo. He began taekwondo at an early age of five, along with his elder brother, Jean, and used to train in his family garage. His brother, who is also his coach, encouraged him from childhood and helped him master the tactics of martial arts. At 15, Steven Lopez became a part of the National team and won his first silver medal in the Pan American Championships in 1994. He got the bronze in his first World Cup Championships later that year.
In the 1996 Pan Am Championships, Steven Lopez turned the silver that he won two years back into gold. He also clinched the gold in the Junior World Championships that year. He added two more gold medals to his ever-expanding medals tally by emerging as the winner in the 1997 World Cup Taekwondo Championships and the 1998 Pan Am Championships, a feat that he repeated in the 1999 Pan American Games.
Steven Lopez won his first Olympic gold in the men’s taekwondo event at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and followed it up with another at the 2004 Athens Olympics. He has also won four golds and a bronze at the World Taekwondo Championships during 2001-07. At the 2005 World Taekwondo Championships, Steven Lopez, along with Mark and Diana, made history for being the first three siblings to receive World Championship titles at the same event. Steven Lopez won the bronze medal by knocking down Rashad Ahmadoy of Azerbaijan in the men’s 80kg division at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
A three-time Sullivan Award Finalist from 2003-05, Steven Lopez regards Carl Lewis and Muhammad Ali as his favorite athletes. During his spare time, he likes reading self-help books, dancing, watching movies, listening to Latin music and hip-hop, as well as playing other sports.
