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Titan Games To Welcome Elite Taekwondo Athletes to Bay Area

By Gerrye Wong | Special to AsianWeek

Steven Lopez (left), 2001 World Taekwondo Champion, will be among the competitors competing in next week’s Titan Games in San Jose.

2000 Olympic gold medalist and 2001 World Taekwondo Champion Steven Lopez, along with 2000 Olympic teammate Kay Poe, will lead the U.S. taekwondo team into the 2003 Titan Game. The Titan Games mark the beginning of the “Road to Athens” for America’s taekwondo elite.

The U.S. taekwondo team will certainly be put to the test as they face talented teams from Korea and Japan in this triangular meet. The Korean team has long been considered the number one team in the world.

For Olympic featherweight Jason Han, from Monterey Park, Calif., the Titan Games will be a homecoming to the Bay Area. Han graduated from UC Berkeley in December with a degree in integrated biology. A member of the UC Berkeley taekwondo team throughout his collegiate career, Han represented the United States on the national collegiate taekwondo team in 1998 and 2000. In 2000 he won a silver medal at the World University Taekwondo Championships. He has been on the U.S. national taekwondo team for four consecutive years.

Han, who became a resident athlete at the U.S. Olympic training complex in Colorado Springs, Colo. two weeks ago, finished third in the 2000 U.S. Olympic team trials, behind Steven Lopez and Glenn Lainfiesta. The 2003 Titan Games will give Han a chance at a rematch with Korea’s Yeon-sik Nam, whom he narrowly lost to in the gold medal match of the 2001 World Cup Taekwondo Championships.

“I’m looking forward to the opportunity to represent the United States in the Bay Area,” said Han. “I’m hoping for a big showing of my family, friends, people I trained with and people I competed with in the area. They’re all really excited to come watch us compete against this level of competition. I’m looking forward to my rematch with Yeon-sik Nam of Korea. Hopefully this time I’ll have the cards on my side. It’s going to be exciting!”

The event will also be a homecoming for Sanaz Shahbazi, who began taekwondo at the age of six in San Jose, Calif. She will be competing in the women’s Olympic heavyweight division (over 147.4 lbs.). Shahbazi has won gold at the 2000 Pan American Taekwondo Championships, silver in the 2000 World University Taekwondo Championships and bronze at the 2001 World Cup Taekwondo Championships.

The U.S. taekwondo team will take the mat against Japan on Friday Feb. 14. Team USA will face Korea, the number one ranked team in the world, the following night.

The Titan Games will provide a major test for U.S. Olympic hopefuls, as the world’s best get set to compete in the mini-sport festival with a multi-sport format. The “Road To Athens” for America’s elite boxers, fencers, shot putters, wrestlers, weightlifters and judo, taekwondo and karate athletes matches them up with the world’s powers in each of these respective sports.

Presale tickets for the Titan Games are available at www.ticketmaster.com or directly, through the National Governing Bodies. Fans using their Visa card to purchase tickets will receive an additional $4 off the presale ticket price. All ticket holders will also receive a free 2002 Olympic Winter Games beret.