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Taekwondo

Paintings of taekwondo practitioners have been found on the ceiling of at least one royal tomb from the Koguryo dynasty (about 50 B.C.) of Korean history. The techniques depicted match those practiced today, not just in Korea, but around the world in at least 140 countries. Taekwondo is a martial art that combines straight line and circular movements—from Japanese and Chinese styles, respectively— with a variety of kicking techniques using bare hands and feet. Tae means to kick or strike with the foot; kwon means fist or to strike with the hand; do means discipline or art or way. Thus, taekwondo is the art, or way, of kicking and punching. However, taekwondo is more than a sport because the practitioner learns to improve spiritually while becoming proficient in the sport. A demonstration sport in the 1988 Games in Seoul and the 1992 Games in Barcelona, taekwondo emerged as a full-medal sport at the 2000 Games in Sydney.

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Scoring
A kick is a cha-gi, and there are several types: • ahp: a front kick; • dolryo: a round kick; • dwi: a back kick; • guligi: a hook kick; • twi-o: a jumping kick; and • yop: a side kick. Kicks with the feet may be aimed at the head or body, but closefisted punches may only be aimed at the body.

Competition
Men and women competed separately at Sydney in a single elimination format to decide the winner of the gold and silver medals. Anyone with one loss was moved to a separate bracket; the bronze medal winner was determined from here.

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Portions of the above text were excerpted from Share the Olympic Dream--Volume II.
© 2001 by Griffin Publishing Group/United States Olympic Committee.

For information on purchasing Griffin materials, please visit the Griffin Publishing Group Web site at http://www.griffinpublishing.com.

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