SEOUL, 30 June 2005 — The high-kicking martial art taekwondo is being revamped as it tries to keep its place as an Olympic sport and keep in the international spotlight.
Various sports, including baseball, softball, modern pentathlon and taekwondo, are reportedly considered threatened with elimination from the Olympics in 2012 when the International Olympic Committee meets in July in Singapore.
The president of the World Taekwondo Federation said he has mounted a big international campaign to win supporters for the martial art, while reforming the sport to make its judging easier to understand and its action more viewer-friendly.
“It was time for us to change,” Choue Chung-won told foreign correspondents. “Our main goal has been transparency for our sport.”
Choue is looking to introduce electronics into the protectors taekwondo athletes wear during matches, which will indicate when they have been struck by a blow. This is aimed at clearing up questions of judging.
More points will be given for athletes who can deliver effective blows through difficult techniques. The time of the match has been shortened and the area of competition decreased in the hopes of increasing action.
Working against taekwondo are the lack of media attention it received in the Athens Games in 2004 compared to other sports and its low television ratings.
There have been charges of judging bias and the sport has also been tainted by its link to Kim Un-yong, a former top taekwondo officials and former IOC vice president who was sentenced to jail after being found guilty of corruption.
“This is a dynamic sport, and along with judo, represents in the Olympics the sports of Asia — the most populous region in the world,” Choue said. The IOC will hold a sport-by-sport secret ballot to determine which among its 28 sports it may eliminate to cut down on the size of the Summer Olympics, while increasing global interest for the Games. A sport that does not receive 50 percent support from the expected 115 IOC members will be voted out.
If a sport is voted out, there are five others — golf, karate, roller sports, seven-a-side rugby and squash — on an official waiting list as possible replacements.
