Taekwondo

History

A Korean martial art, taekwondo means ‘the art of using fists and feet in a fight’. Over two thousand years ago, the 24th King of Silla Chin Heung formed an elite group of warriors, expert on hand-to-hand combat. The group was called Hwa Rang Do and worked pretty much like Japanese samurais. In addition to being experts in the use of weapons such as the sword, spear, the members of this elite group also trained martial arts, particularly SooBak, a technique that used mainly fists and feet. During the Koryo Dynasty (924-1392), the masters developed 25 fighting stances, whose techniques have been used as the foundation of what is known as taekwondo today.

During the Japan invasion of Korea (from 1909 to 1945), Korean martial arts were prohibited. They would only be allowed to train them again after World War II in 1945.

The name taekwondo only started being used in the mid-1950s. The country was still feeling the effects of the Korea war, fought between 1950 and 1953, when General Choi Hong-hi was able to unite several different style martial arts schools, under the one technique named taekwondo. In 1964, the first national championship was held in Korea and in 1965 the Korea Taekwondo Federation was founded.

The sport was introduced in Brazil in 1970, when Master Song Min Cho arrived in São Paulo. The first Brazilian Championship was held in 1973, year when the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) was founded in South Korea. In fact, in 1973, the newly founded organisation staged the first World Championship.

In the 1988 Olympics in Seoul and the 1992 Games in Barcelona, taekwondo featured as a demonstration sport. It was not included in the 1996 Games in Atlanta, but returned at the Sydney Games in 2000, when it was included in the Olympic programme, with medals up for grabs.

Curiosities

Jackie Chan
In the Sydney Olympics, British fighter Sarah Stevenson made a name for herself because of her financial sponsor, who was known the world over as a fighting film star: Jackie Chan. Sarah finished close to the podium, in fourth.

Medal for Brazil
In the 2008 Games in Beijing, fighter Natalia Falavigna won Brazil's first Olympic medal in the sport to date, scooping up the bronze.

See also

Confederação Brasileira de Taekwondo (CBTKD)
Site: www.cbtkd.com.br
E-mail: cbtkd@cbtkd.com.br
Federação Mundial de Taekwondo (WTF): www.worldtaekwondofederation.net