World Taekwondo broke ahead of the curve – Kommersant Newspaper No. 57 (7502) dated 04/04/2023

The recommendations of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on the return of domestic athletes to international competitions have begun to materialize. The World Taekwondo Federation became the first major sports structure, which, after the meeting of the IOC Executive Committee last week, officially sanctioned the almost full admission of Russians to its tournaments, including the World Championship starting at the end of May, was the World Taekwondo Federation (World Taekwondo). This sport has turned into one of the most successful for Russia at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

Council of the World Taekwondo Federation informed on the decision to remove the suspension from participation in their competitions from athletes from Russia and Belarus. They will be able to compete in all tournaments under the auspices of World Taekwondo in a neutral status, without the right to use national symbols and anthem, starting from the main tournament starting on May 29 – the World Championship, which will be hosted by Baku.

This is a rather significant event. Last week, the executive committee of the International Olympic Committee published official recommendations on the abolition of the regime of complete isolation for Russian and Belarusian athletes, introduced on his own initiative immediately after the start of a special military operation in Ukraine. The IOC called on its member federations to ensure their return to international competitions subject to a number of conditions, the main of which is the refusal of “active” support for a special military operation and the actions of the Russian authorities, including the absence of ties with the Russian armed forces and “national security” agencies.

Even before the publication of the new IOC recommendations, the International Boxing Association (IBA) and the International Fencing Federation (FIE) abandoned the “isolation” measures. And at the end of last week, the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) informed about its readiness to return the Russians and Belarusians in May. She specified that she would “consider” “the principles recommended by the IOC” and “consult to develop clear conditions for the participation of players and support personnel with Russian or Belarusian passports.” At the same time, their performance at the next world championship is hardly possible. It will take place in South Africa a little earlier than the taekwondo championship, and the qualification for the tournament has already ended.

Word Taekwondo, thus, became the first structure, which, after the appearance of the resolution of the IOC Executive Committee, sanctioned the almost full-fledged admission of Russia.

It will take place in what has recently become, in contrast to the same table tennis, in which domestic players are far from the top of the ratings, from a minor sport to a rather significant one for it. At the Summer Olympics, which took place in the summer of 2021, the Russian taekwondo team made a breakthrough by winning the medal standings of their tournament. The first Olympic victories were brought to her by Vladislav Larin (over 80 kg) and Maxim Khramtsov (up to 80 kg), Tatyana Minina won silver (up to 57 kg), and Mikhail Artamonov won bronze (up to 58 kg).

It is difficult to talk about the absolute usefulness of the admission – in addition to the neutral status customary for Russian athletes since the doping crisis, there are two circumstances. The first is the criteria put forward by the IOC, compliance with which will be checked in three stages. The decisive word will remain with the special commission, which is created by World Taekwondo. True, the head coach of the Russian national team Vadim Ivanov has already assured TASSthat at least “among Olympians who have won medals, no one has a contract with the armed forces.” At the same time, however, he clarified that, most likely, everything in any case will depend on the “interpretations” of the commission.

The second circumstance is the problems of those organizations that have already decided to remove the suspension from Russian athletes. The IBA has faced boycotts of both its women’s and men’s world championships by a number of top boxing nations. The FIE has already broken several tournaments, the organizers of which did not agree with the return of Russia and Belarus.

Alexey Dospekhov