Tae Kwon Do (also spelled Taekwon-Do or Taekwondo) is a modern martial art with ancient roots. It has become a major international sport over the years. In 1988, Tae Kwon Do debut as a demonstration for the world in the Olympic Games at Seoul, South Korea. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) later added Tae Kwon Do as an official medal sport for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. Now, Tae Kwon Do is in over 185 countries around the world with about 7 million people earning black belts worldwide.

Tae Kwon Do is a Korean martial art that can trace its history back more than 2,000 years. Ancient wall paintings show two men engaged in a form of martial arts called Taek Kyon – the forerunner to Tae Kwon Do. Like Tae Kwon Do, Taek Kyon was primarily a powerful kicking art.

In 1910, Korea was invaded by Japan. The Japanese prohibited the practice of Korean martial arts. Thus, Taek Kyon practitioners – as well as practitioners of all other Korean martial arts – were forced to practice in secrecy. This was a dark time for Korean martial arts, when discovery could mean death for a practitioner. Conversely, many Koreans left Korea for Japan, where they studied Japanese martial arts, including Karate. This was an important step, because many aspects of Karate would later be added to Taek Kyon. The end of World War II brought the liberation of Korea, and Korean martial arts were able to emerge from hiding. What emerged were numerous kwans (“schools”). Although different in name, these kwans practiced styles of martial arts that were very similar to each other.

In 1955, the leaders of these numerous kwans met to form a single art. Led by General Hong Hi Choi, they realized that a single, unified art would be far stronger and able to grow far more than a group of loosely aligned arts with different names. The group chose a name proposed by Gen. Choi for the new art: Tae Kwon Do (“The Way of the Foot and Hand”). Tae Kwon Do incorporated the high, powerful kicks that had characterized Taek Kyon, and that were relatively unique to that art, with powerful hand techniques developed from what Gen. Choi and others had learned by studying Karate in Japan. The result was a new art unlike any other in the world. Gen. Choi was selected as the first president of the Korean Tae Kwon Do Association, and later as head of the International Tae Kwon Do Federation, the international organization dedicated to spreading and teaching Tae Kwon Do throughout the world.