Ex-Olympian declared persona non grata fights back vs Taekwondo federation

MANILA, Philippines — Former Olympian Donald David Geisler has been expelled from the Philippine Taekwondo Association (PTA) after a dispute over a Zoom class last June.

Geisler was declared "Persona non grata" and had his membership "forfeited and terminated" from the PTA on Monday after he held a Zoom class with members of the national team without proper notice to the federation.

A 12-page notice addressed to Geisler was posted by the federation on its Facebook page based on a decision made by the PTA's sanction committee.

Apart from the Zoom training sessions, his complaint against the PTA before the Philippine Competition Commission and his accusations against the federation on social media as reasons for his expulsion.

Geisler broke his silence on the issue on Tuesday, claiming that the federation's decision is baseless.

"Yesterday, the decision from the Association was instantly posted on its Facebook page with Notice to the Public that I was already expelled from the Association as an Accredited Instructor, which now prevents me from conducting and continuing my business in teaching the sport that I love," Geisler wrote.

"From the looks of it, these are all baseless and intended to create leverage against me," he said.

"The truth is on my side and I will continue this uphill battle in such time that discriminatory actions are stopped and justice is served,"

The PTA's investigation of the issue of Geisler's online class concluded that the former Olympian deceived national team members Samuel Morrison and Arven Alcantara that they would only be "delivering inspirational messages" and not be part of an actual online class.

The federation also alleged that Geisler misled other team members Pauline Lopez and Jeordan Dominguez into believing that the class had the consent of the association.

"All told, it is clear that Mr. Geisler committed numerous violations of the PTA's long-standing rules, protocols, and traditions. Worse, when he was caught, Mr. Geisler, instead of apologizing and showing remorse, chose to attack and thus conducted a smear campaign against the PTA," said the federation's sanction committee.

"These actions of Mr. Geisler clearly constitute conduct unbecoming of a PTA coach and taekwondo practitioner, and thus, this committee finds him no longer worthy to remain in the PTA and enjoy the privileges reserved for its members."