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Present Day Taekwondo
Upon liberation of Korea from the Japanese colonial
rule after World War II, the Korean people began recovering
the thought of self-reliance and the traditional folkloric
games resumed their popularity. Song Duk-Ki, afore-mentioned
master of Taekkyon, presented a demonstration of the
martial art before the first republic of Korea president
Syngman Rhee on the occasion of his birthday, clearly
distinguishing Taekwondo from the Japanese Karate which
had been introduced by the Japanese rulers.
Martial art experts began opening Taekwondo gymnasiums
all over the country and after the end of Korean War
[1950-1953] Taekwondo was popularized among the dan-grade
black-belters within the country, also dispatching about
2,000 Taekwondo masters to more than 100 countries.
After all, following the nomination of Taekwondo as
a national martial art in 1971, the present Kukkiwon
was founded in 1972 to be used as the headquarters as
well as the site of various Taekwondo competitions.
Then a year later, in 1973 the World Taekwondo Federation
was established. In 1973, the biennial World Taekwondo
Championships was organized.
In 1984, Taekwondo was admitted to the Asian games as
an official event. In 1975, Taekwondo was accepted as
an official sport by the U.S Amateur Athletic Union
[AAU] and also admitted to the General Association of
International Sports Federations [GAISF], followed by
the adoption of official sports event by the International
Council of Military Sports [CISM] in 1976. The WTF became
an IOC-recognized sports federation in 1980, making
Taekwondo an Olympic sport. Then the adoption of Taekwondo
as an official event was followed by the world games
in 1981, the pan-American games in 1986, and finally
by the Sydney 2000 Olympics in 1994 and then Athens
2004 Olympic Games in 2000. On November 29, 2002, the
114th IOC Session also confirmed the inclusion of Taekwondo
in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
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