Family Battles Kick Up Skills

There’s no mistaking the Lopez family’s garage in Sugar Land, Texas. It’s the one with holes in the walls, courtesy of four taekwondo-loving kids and their friends.

Dodging the laundry their mother would hang to dry in the heat and humidity, Jean, Steven, Mark and Diana Lopez channeled their sibling rivalry and athletic talents into acquiring world-class taekwondo skills.

Steven won a gold medal at the Sydney Olympics and -- with Jean as his coach -- needs only one victory at Saturday’s taekwondo Olympic trials in San Jose to make the U.S. team for the Athens Games. Little sister Diana, 20, won a round-robin fight-off to qualify for the trials and must win twice to earn an Olympic berth.

Only Mark, who didn’t make it to the trials, won’t be on the competition floor at San Jose State when the two Olympic berths are decided. But he helped nurture Steven’s perseverance when they battled in that hot, sticky garage.

“Everything was competition,” Steven said of his family. “My poor dad is a structural engineer and my mom was a stay-at-home mom, the toughest job in the world. My dad was working overtime to feed us. We’d eat so much, it was a competition in itself. First come, first served. The first one to the refrigerator is the one who gets to eat.

“Everything, whether we play basketball or video games, it’s all about competition, and I think it’s a healthy competitiveness we have with each other.”

They all played other sports -- the boys played baseball and football, and Diana excelled at volleyball -- but loved the challenge of taekwondo and the opportunities it gave them to see the world.

Steven remembered being jarred awake at 5:30 a.m. to practice and telling his father, “ ‘Papa, I don’t want to wake up. Please!’ ” But then, he was only 9.

“I thank my father now because those are the little things that made a huge difference and have had a big impact on my life today,” he said.

“I came from a garage. There were oil stains from the car. It got luxurious when they put some carpet on there. The garage would be open and we’d just be training in there. We thought it was fun.

“Actually, I always thought, ‘One day, we’re going to make the Olympic team.’ 1988 was the first year it was a demonstration sport, and I remember right then and there, making the decision, ‘That’s what I want to do.’ Some kids decide, ‘I want to be an astronaut or a fireman.’ I wanted to go to the Olympics. It was almost an obsession, ‘I’m going to the Olympics. I’m going to the Olympics.’

“As long as you will it enough, it will happen sooner or later. There wasn’t any question of if, but when.”

Steven, 25, was initially so protective of his Sydney medal that he wouldn’t allow anyone to hold it. But he realized it belonged as much to his family, friends and teammates as it did to him, and he now encourages youngsters to ooh and ahh over it when he visits schools.

“It’s something everybody should be able to touch,” he said. “I hope to be able to get a newer one because the one I have now, I pass it around the classroom for show and tell and it’s a little bit dirty, but I hope I get a new one in 2004.”

Judo Kid, the Sequel

Jimmy Pedro had enjoyed an outstanding judo career. He’d made his Olympic debut in 1992, won a bronze medal at the 1996 Atlanta Games and won the 1999 world title. After a fifth-place finish at Sydney, he decided it was time to begin the rest of his life.

But while attending the Salt Lake City Winter Games on behalf of his employer, job-placement website monster.com, Pedro realized he wasn’t ready to leave the mat.

Inspired by speedskater Derek Parra, who, just before his 32nd birthday, won the gold medal in the 1,500-meter race, Pedro called his wife, Marie, to tell her he planned a comeback. He didn’t have to say a word.

“She said, ‘I knew this was coming,’ ” Pedro said.

Thanks to a flexible work schedule -- he manages the Olympic sponsorships and helps run an online store and promotions -- he returned to training in September 2002. Within a few months, he was ranked No. 1 in the U.S. at 73 kilograms. By November, he had won the Korean Open and beaten the 2003 world champion.

“That’s when I said, ‘It’s not just a comeback, it’s a legitimate shot at doing something in Athens,’ ” said Pedro, 33, the top-seeded participant in his weight class at the U.S. Olympic trials Saturday at San Jose.

“A lot of athletes in the past have made comebacks in my sport [and] they’re competing but they’re not a threat.... This isn’t just another athlete going through the motions who can’t let go. It’s actually somebody who has a legitimate shot and is physically ready to do it.”

The U.S. qualified in 12 of 14 judo weight classes for Athens. The top five athletes in each class will compete at the trials for an Olympic berth. The prime medal hope among the women is Ronda Rousey of Santa Monica, the U.S. champion in the 63-kilogram class. She’s coached by Pedro’s father, Jimmy Pedro Sr.

The younger Pedro, a Brown University graduate, said he expected to win a medal in his Olympic finale.

“I have the experience, the technique, the background, I’m physically fit, mentally prepared and able to do it,” he said. “Am I going to come out and say I’m going to win gold? No. Can I? Yes....

“I totally stopped and was happy with my life, but I want to give myself this opportunity one last time.”

Here and There

Julie Swail of Irvine will get a chance to earn the final women’s Olympic triathlon berth on June 13 at Bellingham, Wash. If she doesn’t make it, she still will go to the Games -- as a water polo commentator for NBC.

Swail was the captain of the silver medal-winning U.S. water polo team at Sydney.

“I’m excited. I think this team is going to get gold,” she said. “They’re looking so much stronger.”

Kyle Shewfelt, a bronze medalist in floor exercise and vault at last year’s world gymnastics championships, withdrew from this week’s Canadian championships because of an ankle injury. He can petition to be invited to his country’s Olympic trials.

UCLA sophomore Kate Richardson returns to elite gymnastics competition today for the first time since 2002, when she competes in the all-around event at the Canadian championships. She is being coached by UCLA Coach Valorie Kondos Field. Richardson represented Canada at the Sydney Games.

The International Olympic Committee, after agreeing with the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS to educate athletes about AIDS, will distribute an HIV/AIDS awareness card to athletes who compete at Athens this summer.

Only 70 days until the Athens Summer Games.