From the Editorial from the Winter 2000 issue of the WTF magazine.

Now we are at the end of a year again.  The year 2000, however, must be a special, unforgettable year to all Taekwondo people in the world, differently from all the past years.  A strong will to globalise Taekwondo as a modern sport was officially expressed when the WTF was founded on May 28, 1973. About 27 years have passed since that time.  In less than three decades, Taekwondo has grown to be an international sport that participated in the Olympic Games, the greatest sports event of the world.

Needless to say, the impending task after the Sydney Olympic Games was the inclusion of Taekwondo in Athens Olympic Games 2004 as an official program. The WTF intended to expand respective six weight categories for men and women in Athens and the ATHOC, the Organizing Committee of the 2004 Olympic Games, continuously showed favourable responses to the proposal of the WTF. By the way, the Executive Board of the IOC decided at its meeting in Lausanne on December 13 not to add any new sport to 2004 Olympic Games to limit the size of the Olympics.

Taekwondo has been developed at a surprisingly high speed over the past three decades.  The world Taekwondo population is now estimated at 40 million. Member countries of the WTF rose to 162 as of December 1, 2000 compared to 126 as of January 6, 1995, several months after the decision of Taekwondo's inclusion in the Sydney Olympic Games as an official sport on September 4, 1994.  And the number of active International Referees is almost 1,500 while the number of international Taekwondo events is ever increasing.

With the continuous expansion of Taekwondo in the world, the bid cities for 2008 Olympic Games have also contacted the WTF for technical requirements for Taekwondo competition.  The IOC will select the 2008 host city among five candidates of Beijing, Istanbul, Osaka, Paris and Toronto at the very beginning of its 112th Session to be held in Moscow, Russia from July 13 to 16, 2001.  And the new IOC president will be elected at the end of this five-day Session as IOC President Samaranch is to finish his term at this Session after 21 years presidency.  In consideration of all these matters, the year 2001 will surely be another important year in the history of Taekwondo.

In this regard, several works are being promoted to continue to develop Taekwondo as an international sport to be loved and enjoyed more by everyone in everywhere.  WTF Executive Council decided at its Lyon meeting on April 17 to hold the World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships every two years with the inaugural edition taking place in 2002.  The Technical Committee is expected to draft the Competition Rules of the championships to be presented to the ExCo Meeting and the General Assembly to be held at the end of October on the occasion of the 2001 World Taekwondo Championships in Jeju, Korea.

The WTF has also worked on the amendment of the existing Competition Rules that has long been asked but was not possible until the Sydney Olympic Games.  The key point of the amendment should be the introduction of graded point system.  There have been so many indications that the graded point system would be essential to make Taekwondo competition exciting to both contestants and spectators.  However, to secure competitor's safety and correct decision by the referee cannot be ignored.  At any rate, proposal of the revision of the Competition Rules will be finally fixed after discussions and meetings before the 2001 World Taekwondo Championships for the approval by the Executive Council and general assembly at the end of October 2001.

Another work promoted by the WTF is to standardize all the official events of the WTF.  The number of `international's or `open Taekwondo championships that are held with the WTF approval has largely increased over the past several years.  By the way, some of them have not completely fulfilled the requirements as an official event of the WTF from the beginning to the end.

To upgrade the standard of these international championships and make them organized in strict conformity with all related regulations, the WTF has prepared a set of guidelines for open Taekwondo championships that seek for WTF approval.

More works have to be done in the year 2001.  Keeping the status quo might be a setback and even dissipate the achievements made so far.  With the passage of time, we would remember the year 2000 as a great turning point in the history of Taekwondo.  Now everyone has to realize his/her duty at his/her own position to keep up the work till Taekwondo participates in the Olympic Games in full weight categories.

Regards,

WTF Secretariat