President’s of Taekwondo WTF, Chungwon Choue - New Year Message for 2011

WTF President’s New Year Message for 2011, to the dear global taekwondo family members. I would like to send my best wishes to all of you for a wonderful New Year full of joy, happiness and good health.
The year 2010 was highlighted by numerous milestones. Taekwondo was on the official programs of two inaugural events: the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore and the SportAccord World Combat Games in Beijing, China. Furthermore, itwas announced that taekwondo will be part of the 2011 European Masters Games and the 2013 World Masters Games.

Our beloved sport also achieved the status of a Category 2 sport in the Commonwealth Games.

The 2nd WTF World Para-Taekwondo Championships in St. Petersburg, Russia and the WTF World Taekwondo Tour 2010 Moscow were also great successes.

The Moscow World Taekwondo Tour featured a five-member team competition between Korea and Russia, capturing the attention from both spectators and media from around the world.

All of these accomplishments shed light on our bright prospective. While we can look back on days passed and be proud of what we have already achieved, we must know that they are mere stepping stones for the great accomplishments that are yet to come.

The global taekwondo family will see a schedule jam-packed with important events in 2011, including the WTF World Taekwondo Championships in Gyeongju, Korea on May 1-6. World and continental taekwondo qualification tournaments for the 2012 London Olympic Games are also scheduled.

In 2011, the WTF will put top priority on promotion of our taekwondo events, thus helping show the world the fairness in refereeing and the dynamism of taekwondo. The use of a protector and scoring system (PSS), formerly electronic body protectors, and the instant video replay system at the WTF’s major championships has significantly minimized controversy related to referee decisions. The WTF will also make full use of its liaison office in Lausanne, Switzerland for a more effective communication with the international sports community and a successful launch of the WTF Global Membership System
and the WTF Mandatory International Athlete License.

Under the New Year mission of “World Peace through Taekwondo,” the WTF will launch a campaign to better serve humanity. Taekwondo’s intrinsic value lies in its inherent virtues and life skills that lead to the development and achievement of goals and dreams. It is for this purpose that the WTF will give financial and
technical support for the establishment of taekwondo programs in orphanages and refugee camps around the world. I encourage our member national associations to join.

The WTF will put an equal emphasis on its stepped-up Taekwondo Peace Corps activities and the proposed “Taekwondo for All in Africa” project. The Africa project will greatly help promote taekwondo in the African region, which will give hope and dreams to youths in need.

The WTF will also pay special attention to its youth education programs through its active participation in and operation of the World Youth Taekwondo Camp, which was launched in 2009 as an annual event.

As we embark on this journey, milestones have been set to guide us on our way to be the most exemplary International Sports Federation. High on our agenda for the future is securing taekwondo a permanent position in the Olympic Games in 2020 and beyond. The WTF will also strive to place taekwondo on the
official program of the Paralympic Games.

Achieving any of these goals will take great efforts on the part of every member of the global taekwondo family. We must band together to further bring the sport we love to the world. Every member of our global taekwondo family has his or her role to play and we will know that together, we can make it better. We
are one and the future is ours to seize together.

Once again I extend my best wishes to our entire taekwondo family for the year 2011.

Chungwon Choue, President
World Taekwondo Federation