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Taekwondo chief: Bring peace through sports By Cui Xiaohuo
China Daily Staff Writer
Updated: 2008-07-04 11:36
The world's taekwondo chief Chungwon Choue is telling International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge and his compatriot UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to bring the world together through sports.
The 61-year-old, who took the helm of the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) in 2004 after the resignation of its founder Kim Un-yong, is eager to push the "Sports Peace Corps" initiative to improve sports in developing countries.
"A Sports Peace Corps should be founded between the UN and the IOC. The IOC's main purpose is world peace through sports. The UN's purpose is also world peace," Choue said during a short visit to Beijing, before running in the Olympic torch relay in Lijiang, Yunan, the first international federation chief to carry the flame on its route to Beijing.
"(Rogge and Ban) really like the idea and they want to support us," Choue said.
For the initial edition of the project this summer, WTF will send eight Peace Corps teams from South Korea, with one interpreter and three coaches on each team, to eight countries developing taekwondo, including East Timor and Kazakhstan in Asia, and Cote d'Ivoire in Africa. This edition will be one-month long, and WTF plans to hold two sessions each year in the future.
Global engagement and acceptance is a key factor for any sport, Choue said.
"Each international federation should have its Peace Corps team with professionals going to more regions of the world," he said. "I hope it will be a model for other sports federations."
As one of the most loved and widely practiced combat sports, taekwondo has more than 60 million practitioners in 188 countries and regions, the sports chief from Seoul said.
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