History Of Taekwondo
- A Korean Martial Art In Modern Times -
- Part 3 -
By Jimmy Jagtiani *
On 5th Oct. 1975, the World Taekwondo Federation got affiliated to the General Association of International Sports Federation, GAISF.
On 9th Apr. 1976, the Council International du Sports Militaire, C.I.S.M. adopted Taekwondo as one of its approved discipline.
On 17th July 1980, the International Olympic Committee, IOC in its 83rd General Body meeting recognized the World Taekwondo Federation WTF & Taekwondo as a sport for Olympic Ganes. Four years later on 28th September 1984, the Olympic Council of Asia, OCA recognized the Asian Taekwondo Union ATU & adopted Taekwondo as an official sport for Asiad.
On 2nd Nov. 1983, "Kukkiwon Taekwondo Academy" was founded and served as the Academy for World Taekwondo Instructor. Up to now more than 20 thousand instructors completed the International Master Instructor course. 7500 International Master Instructor completed the course for leader of sports.
On 8th to 10th May 1986, The Federation International du Sports Universitaire (FISU) adopted Taekwondo as an event for World University Taekwondo Championships at the FISU Executive Committee meeting in Zagreb, Croatia.
On 17th to 20th Sept. 1988 Taekwondo was included in the 1988 Olympic Games as a demonstration sports competition. The second Taekwondo demonstration was held in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics from 30th July to 2nd August 1992.
On 4th Sept. 1994, was the biggest day for Taekwondo lovers all over the World as the International Olympic Committee, IOC in its 103rd session adopted Taekwondo as a regular event for the Olympic Games, Sydney 2000.
On 20th to 25th July 1998, the 1st International Taekwondo Instructor course for foreigner was conducted by the Kukkiwon Taekwondo Academy at Kukkiwon. 93 instructors from 93 Countries participated in the said course.
On 30th Sept, 2000, Taekwondo enter as a regular sport (official) event in the 27th Olympic Games (Sydney, Australia) and on 26th to 29th Aug. 2004, the 28th Olympic Games (Athens, Greece) Taekwondo remained as an official sports in respective four male and female weight classes. 64 male and 60 female from 60 Nations had participated.
12th April 2005 Dr. Choue Chung Won, re-elected President of the World Taekwondo Federation W.T.F. and Mr. Jin Suk Yang as Secretary General of the W.T.F. respectively.
On 5th ~ 7th Feb. 2006 The Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (I.O.C.) decided at its meeting in Turin, Italy to expand the number of Taekwondoin from 124 players to 128 players added ( 2-Males and 2-Female ) for the Beijing Olympic Games, 2008.
|
At present 188 countries are affiliated under the World Taekwondo Federation, WTF.
Regional Unions - Number of Nations
Asian Taekwondo Union (A.T.U.) - 41
European Taekwondo Union (E.T.U.)- 49
Pan American Taekwondo Union (P.A.T.U.)- 42
African Taekwondo Union (A.F.T.U.)- 43
Oceania Taekwondo Union (O.T.U.)- 13
Total: 188 Countries
Today, about 75 million people from 188 nations under the World Taekwondo Federation practice Taekwondo, while around 3,000 Koreans and 20,000 Foreigners qualified International Master Instructor teaching Taekwondo around the world.
Concluded...
* Jimmy R. Jagtiani, Grand Master & 8th Dan , contributes regularly to e-pao.net . He can be contacted at jimmy_jagtiani(at)yahoo(dot)co(dot)in . This article was webcasted on February 16, 2009.
* Comments posted by users in this discussion thread and other parts of this site are opinions of the individuals posting them (whose user ID is displayed alongside) and not the views of e-pao.net. We strongly recommend that users exercise responsibility, sensitivity and caution over language while writing your opinions which will be seen and read by other users. Please read a complete Guideline on using comments on this website.
