Luisito Pié (, born March 4, 1994), also known as Luis Pie (), is a Haitian-Dominican taekwondo athlete who won the bronze medal in the 2016 Summer Olympics in the 58 kg category.
Pie won the gold medal in the 2014 Central American and Caribbean Games and silver in the 2013 Bolivarian Games, 2015 Pan American Games and bronze medalist in the 2015 Military World Games. He belongs to the Dominican Olympic program CRESO.
Personal life
Pie is tall , born on March 4, 1986, in Bayaguana, Monte Plata. He is the older son of José Beltrán, a Haitian, and Marisol Pié Desquile, who was born in the Dominican Republic to Haitian parents. Pié's father, an agricultural labourer in the Dominican Republic, lacked care for him and did not give him his surname. He was raised by his Dominican step-father Euclides Reyes and his mother.
He went to the Morayma Veloz de Báez High school and as of 2016, studies Physical education at Instituto Superior de Formación Docente Salomé Ureña in 2015, before switching to Universidad Nacional Evangélica in 2016. Pie joined the Centro de Iniciación Deportiva Escolar (CIDE) led by Isaac Ogando, where he were signed after his participation in the 2012 National Elementary School Games, practicing track and field with the coach Francisca Tiburcio when he was ten but later the coach Héctor Rodríguez helped him to switch to Taekwondo one year later. He is a member of the Dominican Navy since 2011 with the lowest rank.
His brother Bernardo, is also a professional Taekwondo fighter, who competed together in the 2014 Central American and Caribbean Games.
Nationality controversy
Following his achievement of a Central American and Caribbean Games gold medal in Veracruz 2014, his Haitian origin sparked some discussion. His mother, Marisol Pie Desquile, appeared in TV news expressing her excitement for his son's victory, speaking with a heavy Haitian accent, which made many people doubt the Dominicanness of Pie.
Two years later, after he won an Olympic bronze medal in Rio 2016, a controversy burst about Pie's nationality, especially in social media.
On 19 August 2016 the , issued a press release congratulating Luisito Pie's for his Olympic medal and stating that Marisol Pie's father had a cédula, meaning that he was legal, and denied that she —and thereby her children— had any problem with .
Nevertheless, she appears indeed in the JCE official list of people that were unlawfully registered in the Dominican Civil Registry. Hence, Marisol and Luisito Pie were benefited of the special Dominican law for said people, law 169-14.
Career
2013
Pie won the 2013 Bolivarian Games silver medal in the 58 kg category after 16-17 falling to the Colombia Luis Muñoz in the final contest. He later blame the lack of experience the reason of his loss.
2014
Pie fought against the Olympic medalist Gabriel Mercedes and César Martínez for the 58 kg category spot in the national team, both Martínez and Pie eliminating Mercedes in the process, and Martinez defeating Pie in the final contest. Pie later was changed to the 63 kg cat for the Central American and Caribbean Games qualifier, while Martínez defended the 58 category. While training for the Central American Caribbean Games with his coach Héctor Rodríguez, he expressed that his dream was climb through the regional games then compete in the 2016 Summer Olympics, dream that he wanted to achieve with strong dedication, even though he had only been a member of the national team for one year. He thanked his teammates and coaches when he won the gold medal in the qualifier mixing different technics in front of every fighter of the 63 kg category. He defeated 10-0 to Rafael Mota Jr from Puerto Rico in the preliminary round, he then win 20-0 over Guayanese Jibreel Malik and 11-6 to the Cuban Ernesto Molina in the semifinals before defeating Venezuelan Gustavo Machado. Soon after that, Pie won the gold medal in the Santo Domingo Open, when he defeated the Mexican Abel Mendoza helping the Dominican Republic to reach the second place in the event. He later won the 58 kg category gold medal of the Pan American Championship held in Aguascalientes, Mexico, winning over the Argentinian Lucas Guzman in the championship contest.