Lopez complaint in letter

WASHINGTON — Twotime Olympic champion Steven Lopez complained to the U.S. Olympic Committee that he was subject to an “institutionalized witch hunt” designed to undermine his success — a piece of Congressional testimony offered by USA Taekwondo to undercut the notion that the organization was unwilling to discipline its top athletes for sex-abuse and other cases.

Lopez is currently under suspension while the U.S. Center for SafeSport investigates a case against him. His brother and coach, Jean, has been permanently banned for sexual misconduct.

Lopez wrote a letter last June to then-CEO Scott Blackmun of the USOC referencing three attempts by USA Taekwondo from 201315, all overturned in arbitration, to ban Jean Lopez for actions that weren’t related to the sex-abuse cases.

Lopez said the attempts were designed “to create the best possible conditions for my failure.”

But USA Taekwondo CEO Steve McNally, who will speak to a House subcommittee today about sex abuse in Olympic sports, wrote in his testimony that he presented the letter to dismiss the idea that USA Taekwondo knowingly looked the other way so the brothers could keep adding to the U.S. win column.

“As this should make clear, the purported ‘protective treatment’ the Lopez brothers received, which creates understandable outrage in the public’s eye, is absolutely and unequivocally false,” McNally wrote.

His testimony was among the six opening statements posted on the subcommittee website in advance of Wednesday’s hearing.

The new CEO of USA Gymnastics, UNM graduate Kerry Perry, said the organization is in mediation with victims of Larry Nassar, the team doctor who molested more than 300 women and girls, many of whom testified this year during Nassar’s trial for child pornography and sexual assault.