Two looks, one tatami

Juan Carlos Cobos faces a new legislature at the head of the Taekwondo Federation of the Valencian Community after being re-elected by an absolute majority. Next to him continues Damián López, one of the most influential LGTBI activists and taekwondo practitioners in the world, in an alliance that has been transforming diversity and social change into part of sports management for three legislatures.

There are encounters that change a trajectory. The one between Juan Carlos Cobos and Damián López changed, at least in part, the way of understanding taekwondo in the Valencian Community and the world.

They came from very different worlds. Also from different life experiences and sexual orientations. But when they met, they found something that was above those differences: a shared way of understanding where the sport should advance.

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They have been working together for three legislatures.

And that combination ended up working.

From activism to the heart of the federation

Damián López is a singular figure in Spanish sports. His trajectory as a taekwondo practitioner and LGTBI activist has led him to promote pioneering initiatives in inclusion. In 2021, he participated in the creation of the taekwondo section of Samarucs, which became the first LGTBI+ federated taekwondo club in Spain.

But the real change came when activism entered the very federative structure.

The Taekwondo Federation of the Valencian Community created a Diversity Secretariat and later a Diversity and Inclusion Department, led by López, becoming a reference in Spain in this area. From there, training and awareness actions for athletes, coaches, and clubs have been promoted.

The approach was simple but revolutionary: it was not enough to say that sport was for everyone; it had to be made to truly be.

López’s experience explains why. He himself has publicly shared the fear he felt for years when entering a locker room and feeling observed because of his sexual orientation. The problem, therefore, does not always start with an aggression or an insult. Sometimes it begins when a person feels they cannot be themselves in the place where they should practice the sport they love.

The federation decided to intervene precisely there.

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And the results have gone far beyond speeches.

In 2025, it processed the name change in the federative titles of Andrea Gil, making her the first trans athlete in Spain whose federative titles were officially modified to reflect her identity. The initiative was promoted from the Diversity area led by López.

Activities related to diversity, equality, feminism, mental health, and migration have also multiplied. An evolution that demonstrates that the debate has ceased to be limited to sexual orientation to address diversity from a much broader perspective.

An allied president

For that change to occur, something more than an activist willing to fight was needed.

A president willing to listen was needed. That’s where Cobos appears.

His role has been to turn social demands into federative decisions. Cobos’s own presentation as president places transparency, professionalization, diversity, and the creation of a safe environment for those who practice taekwondo among his priorities.

It is probably the least visible part of this story: the importance of allies.

An activist can point out discrimination, denounce injustice, or propose change. But they need to find people within institutions willing to open doors.

Cobos did that.

And López found in him a interlocutor willing to assume that transforming sport also means transforming its own structures.

Beyond diversity

The commitment to transformation has not been limited to LGTBI policies.

In recent years, the Valencian Federation has maintained a particularly demanding position regarding transparency and good governance in Spanish taekwondo. In 2025, it requested the Superior Sports Council to suspend members of the Board of Directors of the Royal Spanish Taekwondo Federation related to the so-called Manopla case, arguing that the initiative sought to defend the interests of athletes, clubs, and federations and demand transparency.

In January 2026, it again called for the action of the CSD in the face of a new criminal procedure related to members of the RFET and announced that the FTCV would appear as a private accusation.

Cobos’s position thus fits with an idea that also runs through López’s work: a modern sport cannot be limited to winning medals; it must take care of the people who make it possible.

The Gay Games and the next leap

López’s trajectory is also linked to one of the major LGTBI sporting events that Valencia has hosted. He was one of the people who worked to promote the city’s candidacy for the Gay Games and became an ambassador and image of the project.

Now, after three legislatures, the challenge changes.

The new stage is no longer just about consolidating what has been built. The goal is to grow taekwondo like never before.

More athletes. More clubs. More talent. More competition. More training. More international presence. And a federation capable of continuing to be a space where differences are not a barrier to practicing sport.

Cobos’s absolute majority re-election represents support for a management style that has tried to combine two dimensions that have traditionally walked separately: sports management and social transformation.

Cobos and López precisely represent that combination.

One knows how to make a federation work.

The other knows what questions a federation must ask itself to not fall behind.

Three legislatures later, they continue to share a path.

And perhaps therein lies the key to their success: they did not need to come from the same place to want to reach the same destination. Now the next battle begins.

And this time the goal is much more ambitious: to take Valencian taekwondo to a dimension it has yet to know.