Olympics Tae-Kwon Do debacle

You've probably all heard about the TKD debacle wherein a Cuban TKD bronze finalist Angel Matos snapped and kicked the referee following a completely legitimate decision not in his favor. If not, the video of said incident can be found here. Two days ago, there was another piece about this incident in VG, wherein Angel Matos pretty much states that the referee deserved it.

Now; I watched this and many of the other fights, and this Cuban dude was milking what was obviously completely ficticious injuries in his ankle, knee and hip in several of his other fights as well. The scenario invariably followed something like this: Dude took some time-out for alleged injuries, got to rest a little bit, and then magically sprung into action like there were no injuries at all, despite having put on a full-on Broadway/Italian soccer/Gone with the wind fainting-from-pain scene seconds earlier. A little coolant spray doesn't change the situation from "woe is me; my knee is dislocated" to first round of a Jerome LeBanner ca. 2001 fight. Perhaps if he was mainlining speed, but we'd have seen that. So; having failed to get back into shape within the 1 minute period allowed following an alleged ankle injury, and his second having failed to ask for more injury time, the other guy gets the victory. Immediately, the Cuban Scarlett O'Hara - unable to stand up a minute earlier - leaps up and starts to go aggro on the ref. He gets no love, and so he full-on kicks the referee in the head. There are no signs of him holding anything back - hips are completely rotated, and it's a stationary target. Result; banned for life.

This was extremely unsportsmanlike of this cigar-smoking pseudo-mexican, and all of that has been covered well in the press. What I feel is lacking is the following: Here we have a world-class TKD performer. Black belt with matching shoes and bow-tie - good enough to reach the bronze finals in the olympics. He full-on kicks a completely unprepared person in the head. Said person, who had no way of knowing he was gonna get kicked and was shorter and smaller than the assailant, absorbs the full impact of the kick, resulting in a bleeding lip.

That's it? He didn't even go down for the count - just absorbed the blow and got a bleeding lip.

Now granted, even if Kyokushin and Muay Thai had been olympic sports, I wouldn't have been good enough to enter the olympics, much less reach the bronze finals. I can tell you this though; if someone at my level in Kyokushin or Muay-Thai connects with a full force kick to the head of a person - in this case even a much shorter person, who was completely unprepared - the person is gonna go down, and remain in a prone position for quite some time to come. And that's not me trying to come off as a cage-fighting Ninja internet badass - just physics.

Am I the only one who wondered about this? Marius?