By HAL BOCK -- Associated Press
 For 13 years, Esther Kim and Kay Poe grew up together, two girl friends closer than sisters, training in the martial art of taekwondo.
 
 And then, 10 days ago, they found themselves scheduled to fight each other with a ticket to the Olympics awaiting the winner. In the spirit of their sport, if all things were equal, they would set aside personal feelings and get in the ring.
 
 But everything was not equal. Poe had dislocated her left kneecap in her previous match and Kim refused to fight, forfeiting the match and surrendering the Olympic berth to her friend. As they sat together in the holding area, dressed for combat, Kim told her friend there would be no fight that day,
 
 "I never really thought about it," Kim said. "It kind of came up in a heartbeat. It was emotional. It was an unfair situation to fight your best friend who can't even stand up. I felt it was the only decision to be made and I made it. I felt the right thing to do was to bow out."
 
 At first, Poe resisted and for a moment the friends argued. It was the closest they would come to a fight that day. But Kim had made up her mind. And for her, it was a no-brainer.
 
 "When I first told Kay, she said, 'I can't ask you to do this."' Kim said in a conference call Tuesday. "I told her, 'You're not asking me, I'm telling you. It's unfair to fight like this. You will have the gold medal around your neck and I feel inside I have a gold medal in my heart.' There are other ways to be a champion. A real martial artist is a champion every day in life, too."
 
 Kim and Poe have fooled around in the ring, but never fought. "If we had to fight, you kind of push personal things out of the way," Kim said. "If she was in the best health and strong, we would go in the ring and fight. We will always be friends forever so it wouldn't matter who won."
 
 On this day, the two friends felt they all, an Olympic berth she was giving up.
 
 "I have no regrets or second thoughts," she said. "We talked about that and I told Kay to please stop arguing. I want to look back on this day and be proud. I feel I did the right thing. Could you fight your brother who couldn't stand up? Could you live with yourself if you beat a person with one leg and you had two?"
 
 Kim's gesture quickly caught the attention of International Olympic Committee officials. Days later, she was at home in Houston, sleeping actually, when IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch called to invite Kim and her father, who coaches both girls, to attend the Olympics in Sydney as the IOC's guests.
 
 "I was shocked when he called," she said. "I was speechless. I was excited that he actually called me. He said he was impressed by the gesture, that it had opened a lot of eyes around the world.
 
 "I had tears in my eyes. I was so excited. I wanted to go to watch Kay compete. I want to be there to give her what she needs, to support her in every way I can. The Olympics have always been my dream. It is the whole reason I am in taekwondo, why I put the uniform on. It was always my dream, my goal in life. His calling finished my Olympic dream. Although I'm not on the team, he completed my dream by letting my father and me go to see Kay compete."
 
 Poe's knee continues to heal but she is six to eight weeks away from returning to the ring. She expects to be ready for the Olympics and said she plans a birthday celebration there for Esther, who gave the berth to her friend.