World Taekwondo Championship

For some time now, Tuesdays have been my days to get some time alone with Becky. It is our Date Day. I only teach one class, and that is over at 9:30 in the morning. A neighbor lady watches the kids for the day, and we try to cram a little talk time, a little fun time, and a butch of errands into that day.

Last Tuesday was special. Rather than going to downtown Beijing, we stayed very close to home. A ten minute walk from our home there is a newly completely renovated stadium that will be used in the 2008 Olympics. The first event held in the stadium after the completion of its makeover was the 2007 World Taekwondo Championships.

Having seen a banner a few months before and having a Taekwondo black belt for a wife, I decided to check the possibilities of going. I got two tickets for the final day of the competition for our Date Day.

We decided to bring the kids for the first half of the day, so they could experience it with us. Josiah had a great time. He still talks about it and carries around the magazine he was given. Amelia endured. At least she tried.

There were only two Americans competing that day. With another American friend who had also come, we waved our American flag and cheered our athletes on. Though they did not medal on that day, our fighters were great.

The final fight of the day was the gold medal round between the heavy-weight women (That was really their class!) from Korea and China. Being held in Beijing, he Chinese fighter had overwhelming support. She was also incredibly dominant leading up to the gold medal fight. Here is the outcome of that fight:

Several times during the day, TV cameras took shots of our family and showed us on the big screen. The next day, we took the kids to our local McDonalds, where they are pretty well-known among the workers there. As we sat down, a worker came over and excitedly recalled how she had seen us on the national sports channel during the coverage of the event. So we unwittingly had ten seconds of fame. I hope my teeth were clean.