IOC Confirms Taekwondo as Regular Olympic EventThe International Olympic Committee (IOC) has decided to confirm taekwondo as an official Olympic event in 2004, it was reported Wednesday.The decision came in a letter from IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch to South Korea's IOC executive board member Kim Un-Yong, Kim's office said. Samaranch's letter read: "I am pleased to announce that during the recent meeting of the Executive Board held from December 11 to 13 in Lausanne, it has been decided to confirm taekwondo as an Olympic sport. "The IOC sport director will soon be in contact with you in order to develop the qualification system for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games in this regard." Kim was not available for comment but South Korean newspapers quoted him as saying the IOC decision was an honor to Koreans. Taekwondo, the Korean-born sport of kicking and punching, made its Olympic debut this year in Sydney on a temporary basis. Taekwondo, originating in Korea more than 2,000 years ago, means "the way of hand and foot" in Korean. It is also a philosophy or a way of life to its practitioners. The first taekwondo world championships were staged in 1973. The sport was introduced at the 1988 Seoul Games as an exhibition event and again in Barcelona in 1992, helping boost the number of practitioners to an estimated 50 million in about 160 countries. Eight gold medals were at stake in Sydney. But the World Taekwondo Federation limited the number of entries per country to two men and two women in a competition fought in four men's and four women's weight divisions. |
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