Featherweight (≤68 kilograms), Men

The last two World Champions were American Mark Lopez (2005) and Chinese Taipei’s Sung Yu-Chi (2007). The defending Olympic champion was Iran’s Hadj Saei, who also won bronze in this class in 2000, but he had moved up to the welterweight class in Beijing. Lopez and Sung both made it to the semi-finals, with Lopez moving on to the final, but Sung was upset by the unheralded Korean Son Tae-Jin. The final match was very close between Lopez and Son, with the score tied 2-2 with only seconds left, when Son scored with a kick to win the gold medal.

Mark Lopez was one of three Lopez siblings competing in taekwondo in Beijing, as he was joined by his brother, Steven, and sister, Diana, both of whom won bronze medals. One first round loser was Logan Campbell, who had raised money to support his Olympic training by opening and managing a brothel in his native New Zealand, which was legal.