The main bracket consisted of a single-elimination tournament, culminating in the gold medal match.

Each semifinal loser faced the last remaining repechage competitor from the opposite half of the bracket in a bronze medal match.

The referee determined that Lopez had used an illegal "cut kick" (blocked an opponent's blow below the waist).

[2] In the wake of the decision, Perez leveled serious charges against the sport's governing body, the World Taekwondo Federation:[2] Charles Robinson, a writer for Yahoo!

Sports in the U.S., called the events surrounding Lopez' match "a chaotic episode that might ultimately prove to be the tipping point to Olympic doom", adding that it had been widely rumored that taekwondo was on the brink of being removed from the Olympic program.