23rd Muju Taekwondo Championship

Jun Jang
Jun Jang
Jul 22, 2017 · 2 min read

Taekwondo literally means the “foot and fist way” that originated in Korea hundreds of years ago. It was used in war, protecting the king and the citizens, and also for entertainment. In 1955 they made the name ‘Taekwondo’ and made it into an official world wide sport and made it as one of the key sports in Olympics. Now recently Korea held the 23rd World Taekwondo Championship.

On June 24 the 23rd WTF World Taekwondo Championship was held. The championship lasted approximately six days.The championship was held in a National Taekwondo T1 Arena in Muju, North Jeolla Province. The WTF (World Taekwondo Federation) championship was an exciting event that was started by the World Taekwondo Federation in 1973. This was the seventh time South Korea hosted this tournament. 973 athletes from 183 countries fought for 16 gold medals in eight different categories. At the opening ceremony president Moon Jaein addressed a congratulatory speech. He said,”I believe in the strength of sports for establishing peace. I am glad to see the first sports exchange of the south and the north under the new south korean government” He added, “I hope that the WTF and ITF (International Taekwondo Federation) can become one and South and North Korea can become one and the world can become one as well.”

Simply speaking WTF and ITF are the taekwondo styles for South and North Korea. WTF and ITF used to be united until North and South split and had the Korean War. Then eventually taekwondo split like the two countries did, WTF becoming the South Korean style and ITF becoming the North Korean style. WTF and ITF uses relatively the same kicks in sparring, but ITF uses a lot of punches in sparring instead.

The championship were a great chance for athletes around the world to test their abilities and come together to compete against one another. What if WTF and ITF does come together to become a super taekwondo? It is fully possible that it will increase the global popularity Taekwondo and incorporate various martial arts that used to excluded under the regulation of WTF.

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