Balfencing? Exit old saying, Taekwondo statue stands tall at Olympic Museum[기자수첩-스포츠].

ⓒWorld Taekwondo Federation (WT)

A statue commemorating the ‘National Sport’ Taekwondo has been erected in the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Olympic Museum.

On the 15th (Korean time), the IOC held a Taekwondo statue unveiling ceremony at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, where its headquarters is located. The unveiling ceremony was attended by Thomas Bach, Chairman of the IOC, Chungwon Choue, President of the World Taekwondo Federation (WT), and Jae-Yul Kim, IOC member.

The statue, erected next to the famous sculpture ‘Olympic Flame’ and at the entrance of the museum, symbolizes Olympic Taekwondo with a player performing a back kick on an octagonal base that symbolizes a Taekwondo stadium, wearing a headgear and electronic protector.

The establishment of a Taekwondo statue in the IOC Museum, which is visited by more than 200,000 people each year, allows one to feel the elevated status of Taekwondo. There are a total of 35 official summer and winter Olympic sports (28 summer, 7 winter), but only 10 sports, including Taekwondo, athletics, soccer, and cycling, have sculptures in the Olympic Museum.

Chairman Bach also said, “The Taekwondo statue shows that Taekwondo has established a firm position not only in the Olympics but also in the international community. Taekwondo has emerged as the fastest-growing sport in the world and a sport loved by people worldwide.”

Taekwondo, which has even received high praise from Chairman Bach, has reaffirmed its status as an official Olympic sport. The sports that have erected sculptures in the Olympic Museum are those recognized by the IOC as core Olympic partners. This opportunity is expected to further strengthen Taekwondo’s position.

Taekwondo, which became an official sport for the first time in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, has faced several threats of expulsion. Whenever the topic of Olympic expulsion came up, Taekwondo was always mentioned. It was even mockingly referred to as ‘foot fencing’ for its perceived monotony of just kicking electronic protectors with feet.

Park Woo-hyuk (left). ⓒ Newsis

Feeling the crisis, the World Taekwondo Federation (WT) teamed up with Taekwondo practitioners worldwide to try for changes and seize new opportunities. Since June of last year, they have revised the scoring system to encourage aggressive play, greatly reducing the ‘boring’ feedback, and with a statue now erected in the Olympic Museum, the threat of Olympic expulsion has become a thing of the past.

There is a growing sense that there are more Taekwondo practitioners worldwide, and the level has improved. Amid the global leveling of skills, Korea, the host country, experienced a ‘no gold’ embarrassment at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. It has become virtually impossible for Korean players to sweep gold medals in international competitions due to the globalization of Taekwondo.

Although the path to gold medals has narrowed, the path for Taekwondo to spread throughout the world has become wider and stronger. If we do not resist change and respond sensitively to the flow, Taekwondo can become a precious national flag that gives Koreans a greater sense of pride than gold medals.