By Duncan Mackay

Taekwondo signs MoU with Inas June 2013June 17 - World Taekwondo has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Inas, the International Federation for sport for athletes with an intellectual disability, which could one day see them taking part in the sport at the Paralympics.


The agreement was signed at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) headquarters in Lausanne in a ceremony attended by Chungwon Choue, President of the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF), and Nick Parr, executive director of Inas.

The ceremony was witnessed by WTF secretary general Jean-Marie Ayer, members of the WTF Council, several WTF member national association presidents and secretaries general, and members of various WTF Committees.

Choue has made ensuring that the sport is included on the Paralympic programme for the 2020 Games - which will be held in either Istanbul, Madrid or Tokyo - one of his main priorities.

The agreement aims to develop new disciplines of Para-Taekwondo, focusing on poomsae, a series of postures and movements of the technical forms of taekwondo skills.

"I am proud to announce that the WTF signed an MoU with the International Sport Federation for Para-athletes with Intellectual Disability to work together to include new competitors and disciplines into Para-taekwondo," said Choue.

"Para-taekwondo is fast becoming a popular sport globally and it is testament to how far the sport has spread since the inaugural World Championships in 2009 that the 59 medals handed out at the [2013 World Championships] tournament [in Lausanne] were distributed amongst 20 different countries."

Under the terms of the MoU both organisations have pledged to find out how much interest is there in athletes practicing Para-taekwondo and to cooperate to establish specific classification and competition rules for the sport.

The WTF has also agreed to promote taekwondo for athletes with intellectual disabilities among its 204 Member National Associations and to introduce a competition for athletes with intellectual disabilities at next year's WTF Para-taekwondo Championships.

The WTF will also actively work to fulfill all requirements to become an Inas member.

"Organisations such as Inas provide extraordinary pathways towards sport for those who have intellectual and neurological differences," said Ayer.

"I believe our next steps are working with both of these great new partners to develop grass-roots programmes to nurture new disciplines within taekwondo."

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