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characteristic spirit of taekwondo, the ITF has devoted itself to building up civilized human society and will continue its cause in conformity with the goal and purpose of the Olympics to encourage and contribute to the construction of a peaceful human society, which ensures the dignity of humans.“ “I was fascinated by taekwondo since I was young, and my life has been changed entirely,” double Olympic medalist Pascal Gentil of France said. “Since then, I have been keeping to the principles of taekwondo, which are respect and self-discipline.” “WT transformed a Korean martial art into one of the popular sports in the world, and WT also has developed the men’s sport into a sport with gender equality,” said IOC President Thomas Bach. “WT opened a pathway to sport participation for refugees and provided motivation for the creation of Olympic refugee teams and the establishment of the Olympic Refuge Foundation.” He concluded, “I wish to thank taekwondo for demonstrating the power of sport in contributing to
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peace. I hope these two organizations will continue the collaboration they commited to in Nanjing, China in 2014, which I witnessed.” That year, under the eyes of Bach, the ITF and WT signed a protocol of accord. That subsequently enabled the two federations to jointly organise taekwondo events in Russia, South Korea and North Korea. The latest agreement between WT and ITF was signed on Nov. 2, 2018, in Pyongyang, North Korea to enhance cooperation. The joint demonstration in Lausanne marks the latest step in the ongoing collaboration between the two federations. In addition to the taekwondo demonstrations and speeches, in a truly special event, two taekwondo legends - WT Council Members Kook-hyun Jung of Korea and Metin Sahin of Turkey - held a re-match after 34 years. These two masters - both clearly fit despite their ages - had last competed at the final of the WT World Championships in 1985.
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