- India-Korea cultural ties deepened with Taekwondo classes launched for 3,195 students across 45 Indian schools, supported by the Korean Cultural Centre India (KCCI).
- KCCI and India Taekwondo signed an MoU in 2024 to expand the sport regionally and nurture grassroots-level talent with an eye on global competitions.
- Focus on 2025 World Championships and 2028 Olympics, as the collaboration aims to build world-class Indian Taekwondo athletes while fostering cultural exchange.
In a major step towards enhancing cultural and sporting bilateral ties between India and Korea, a fresh group of Taekwondo classes started for 3,195 students in 45 schools in India. The classes would be taken in 13 schools in Delhi, 6 in Uttar Pradesh, 8 in Haryana, 4 in Maharashtra, 4 in Punjab, 4 in West Bengal, 3 in Uttarakhand, and one school each in Mizoram, Manipur, and Karnataka.
Korean Cultural Centre India (KCCI) has been actively facilitating Taekwondo education in Indian schools since 2021. From 2021 to 2024, Taekwondo classes were conducted in 116 Indian schools with more than 9,000 students participating. In 2024, KCCI entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with India Taekwondo, the national governing body for the sport in India, to increase the spread of the sport into regional locations.
Taekwondo, Korea's dynamic martial art that employs hand and foot techniques, is open to participants of any age and can be practiced everywhere without special equipment. Taekwondo gained international popularity initially as a demonstration sport in the 1988 Seoul Olympics and made its Olympic debut as an official discipline in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Now, Taekwondo is practiced and enjoyed by people all over the world, making K-Sports globally popular.
Namdev Sampat Shirgaonkar, India Taekwondo President, commented, "We would want to leverage our existing success, and hence our priority is to take Indian Taekwondo to the top in big world competitions. We are training hard for the 2025 World Taekwondo Championships to be held in Korea and looking toward the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics".
The collaboration between India Taekwondo and KCCI seeks to develop Taekwondo at the grassroots level, develop world-class athletes, and provide for the sport's sustainable growth in India. The two entities are collaborating to enhance cultural exchanges and motivate a new generation of Indian athletes through the discipline and ethos of Taekwondo.
Hwang Il Yong, Director of the Korean Cultural Centre India, stated, "We are determined to further enhance the identity of Taekwondo in India by investing in both technical guidance and institutional support. Our aim is to make Taekwondo a fun, accessible sport for generations to come, while strengthening its values through systematic education and training".
