Can Tainted
Taekwondo Overcome Its Sorid Past?
History Of WTF, ITF, Choi Hong Hi & Olympic Games
The core tenets of Taekwondo
are perseverance, self-control, integrity, courtesy and an indomitable
spirit, but according to a revealing book by Alex Gillis, A Killing
Art: The Untold History of Tae Kwon Do, these principles were betrayed
by the very men who founded the popular form of martial arts.
Since its inception in the 1950s, Taekwondo has been plagued by
controversy, scandal and mismanagement. Choi Hong-Hi
was a general in the South Korean army when he came up with Taekwondo
and convinced the leaders of Korea at that time to implement it as
standard training practive in the Korean army. In 1966, Choi created
the ITF (International Taekwondo Federation) and within only a few
years Taekwondo had become the fastest growing martial art in the world.
But the sheen of the
shiny new sport was soon tarnished with multiple disagreements between
Choi and South Korean President Park Chung-Hee, the most significant of
which was a plan to recruit two of Choi's Taekwondo instructors for a
mission aimed at kidnapping 203 alleged spies in 7 countries. Soon
after the high-profile fall out, Choi moved to Canada where he
continued setting up Taekwondo schools and training students and
instructors.
Meanwhile South Korea appointed Kim Un-yong in
Choi's place in the hopes that Kim would restore Taekwondo to its
former glory. For a while Kim was successful. He created the WTF (World
Taekwondo Federation) in 1973 and looked set to reign in peace. But
Choi accused him of stealing his ideas and allied himself with North
Korea in a plan to destabilise the WTF. His deal with North Korea,
however, cost him many of his students and instructors, as they
disagreed with his plans and switched allegiance to the WTF. In
addition, Choi's son began plotting with various North Korean agents
and Toronto mobsters to assassinate "the newest South Korean dictator".
They were caught, Choi's son spent some time in prison and Choi
retreated to a life of seclusion.
But Taekwodo's woes
didn't end there. For years Kim lobbied for Taekwondo to become an
official Olympic sport. Along the way he became embroiled in one of the
biggest Olympic scandals in history when he got caught up in bribery
allegations related to the Olympics at Salt Lake City, Utah.
Nevertheless, in 2000, Taekwondo entered the Olympic's fray and once
again ignited a barrage of criticism and controversy. The Sydney
Olympics were beset by refereeing mistakes, bad judging and apparently
blatant cheating. Later retired WTF vice-president, Lee Chong-woo,
admitted that cheating was rife. Lee was responsible for assigning
specific referees to specific matches and would tacitly try to
influence judges' decisions. Judges that proved themselves amenable
were then assigned more important matches. The purpose was to eliminate
Korea's competition early on so that they would face relatively weak
opponents when it came to medal bouts.
At that time,
gangsters and mobsters were trying to infiltrate Taekwondo to gain
influence and power, especially at the Olympic Games. Lee admitted that
while the gangsters gave Taekwondo a bad name, they were necessary to
"counter groups trying to wreck the martial art", which Gillis believes
was an indirect reference to the Cold War that was going on between the
WTF and ITF. And still Taekwondo battled to salvage its reputation. Two
years ago several WTF officials were convicted of issuing fake licences
to more than 30 people. In 2005 Kim Un-yong was brought down when he
was found guilty of embezzling more than $3 million and accepting
bribes for more than $700,000. By this time the IOC was understandably
thinking of dropping Taekwondo as an official Olympic sport, but didn't
do so in light of the fact that the WTF was dedicated to rebuilding
itself, from the bottom up.
Canada's current WTF secretary
general, Wayne Mitchell, says that they are now focusing on running the
WTF like a business, along business principles. Taekwondo Grandmaster,
Kee Ha says that thanks to a host of judging seminars and WTF
initiatives refereeing and judging should be more consistent this year.
Taekwondo is a much loved martial art, whose adherents are determined
to see it shine once again.
Sandra wrote this article for the online marketers Ravenscroft taekwondo and
martial arts one of the leading sites for information on
developments and events in Taekwondo around the world.
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