Letter of Condolences on the Passing of Dr. Un Yong Kim

Ref. No. 17/200

Seoul, 3 October 2017

Dear World Taekwondo family members,

It is with great sadness that I inform you of the passing of Dr. Un Yong Kim, "The Father

of Olympic Taekwondo."

Dr. Kim, who transformed Korea’s national martial art into a global sport, passed away

peacefully today at the hospital of his alma mater, Yonsei University. He was 86 years old.

In 1971, Dr. Kim was elected president of the Korean Taekwondo Association. In 1972, he

founded the Kukkiwon as the flagship center for global taekwondo training and grading. In

1973, he became the founding president of the World Taekwondo Federation, or WTF.

Also in 1973, he presided over the first World Taekwondo Championships at the

Kukkiwon. In 1988, under Dr. Kim’s stewardship, taekwondo was a demonstration sport at

the Seoul Olympics. And in 2000, thanks to Dr. Kim’s efforts, taekwondo became a

program sport in Sydney.

All my efforts for taekwondo are based on the solid foundation of his earlier achievements.

He was the founding father of Olympic taekwondo. Everyone in global taekwondo today

benefits from the structures he created; every taekwondo player today who dreams of

Olympic glory owes Kim a debt of gratitude.

I know all members of the world taekwondo family join me in expressing condolences to

Dr. Kim’s wife and children.

The passing of Dr. Un Yong Kim makes October 3rd a sad day for the world taekwondo

family. But while the man has departed, his legacy lives on.

Sincerely yours,

Chungwon Choue

President

As a service to our readers, Around the Rings will provide verbatim texts of selected press releases issued by Olympic-related organizations, federations, businesses and sponsors.

These press releases appear as sent to Around the Rings and are not edited for spelling, grammar or punctuation.

25 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is www.aroundtherings.com, for subscribers only