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The core tenets of Taekwondo are perseverance, self-control, integrity, courtesy and an indomitable spirit, but according to a revealing book by Alex Gillis, A Killing Art: The Untold History of Tae Kwon Do, these principles were betrayed by the very men who founded the popular form of martial arts.
Since its inception in the 1950s, Taekwondo has been plagued by controversy, scandal and mismanagement. Choi Hong-Hi was a general in the South Korean army when he came up with Taekwondo and convinced the leaders of Korea at that time to implement it as standard training practive in the Korean army. In 1966, Choi created the ITF (International Taekwondo Federation) and within only a few years Taekwondo had become the fastest growing martial art in the world.
But the sheen of the shiny new sport was soon tarnished with multiple disagreements between Choi and South Korean President Park Chung-Hee, the most significant of which was a plan to recruit two of Hoi's Taekwondo instructors for a mission aimed at kidnapping 203 alleged spies in 7 countries. Soon after the high-profile fall out, Coi moved to Canada where he continued setting up Taekwondo schools and training students and instructors.
Meanwhile South Korea appointed Kim Un-yong in Choi's place in the hopes that Kim would restore Taekwondo to its former glory. For a while Kim was successful. He created the WTF (World Taekwondo Federation) in 1973 and looked set to reign in peace. But Choi accused him of stealing his ideas and allied himself with North Korea in a plan to destabilise the WTF. His deal with North Korea, however, cost him many of his students and instructors, as they disagreed with his plans and switched allegiance to the WTF. In addition, Choi's son began plotting with various North Korean agents and Toronto mobsters to assassinate "the newest South Korean dictator". They were caught, Choi's son spent some time in prison and Choi retreated to a life of seclusion.
But Taekwodo's woes didn't end there. For years Kim lobbied for Taekwondo to become an official Olympic sport. Along the way he became embroiled in one of the biggest Olympic scandals in history when he got caught up in bribery allegations related to the Olympics at Salt Lake City, Utah. Nevertheless, in 2000, Taekwondo entered the Olympic's fray and once again ignited a barrage of criticism and controversy. The Sydney Olympics were beset by refereeing mistakes, bad judging and apparently blatant cheating. Later retired WTF vice-president, Lee Chong-woo, admitted that cheating was rife. Lee was responsible for assigning specific referees to specific matches and would tacitly try to influence judges' decisions. Judges that proved themselves amenable were then assigned more important matches. The purpose was to eliminate Korea's competition early on so that they would face relatively weak opponents when it came to medal bouts.
At that time, gangsters and mobsters were trying to infiltrate Taekwondo to gain influence and power, especially at the Olympic Games. Lee admitted that while the gangsters have Taekwondo a bad name, there were necessary to "counter groups trying to wreck the martial art", which Gillis believes was an indirect reference to the Cold War that was going on between the WTF and ITF.
And still Taekwondo battled to salvage its reputation. Two years ago several WTF officials were convicted of issuing fake licences to more than 30 people. In 2005 Kim Un-yong was brought down when he was found guilty of embezzling more than $3 million and accepting bribes for more than $700,000. By this time the IOC was understandably thinking of dropping Taekwondo as an official Olympic sport, but didn't do so in light of the fact that the WTF was dedicated to rebuilding itself, from the bottom up.
Canada's current WTF secretary general, Wayne Mitchell, says that they are now focussing on running the WTF like a business, along business principles. Taekwondo Grandmaster, Kee Ha says that thanks to a host of judging seminars and WTF initiatives refereeing and judging should be more consistent this year. Taekwondo is a much loved martial art, whose adherents are determined to see it shine once again.
Recommended site:
http://www.macleans.ca/culture/sports/article.jsp?content=20080709_59367_59367
Sandra wrote this article for the online marketers Ravenscroft taekwondo and martial arts one of the leading sites for information on developments and events in Taekwondo around the world
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