Webmaster

On behalf of the University of California Martial Arts Program, we are pleased to let you know that our founding director Dr. Ken Min has been re-appointed as Taekwondo Technical Chairperson for FISU (International University Sports Federation).

For your information, University Taekwondo Movement started our own campus under the outstanding leadership of Dr. Ken Min in 1986 when the UC Martial Arts Program hosted the 1st World University Taekwondo Championship on campus. Here are some footsteps of history in University Taekwondo developments.

The 1^st FISU WUTC was followed by the 2^nd in Santander, Spain; the 3^rd in Guadalajara, Mexico; the 4^th in St. Petersburg, Russia; the 5^th in Manzanillo-Colima, Mexico; the 6^th in Kaohsiung, Taipei; the 7^th in Berkeley, California USA; the 8^th in Patra, Greece; the 9^th  in Valencia, Spain.  The 10^th WUTC was held highly successfully in Belgrade, Serbia as a test event for the 2009 Summer Universiade. The 11^th was held in 2010 at Vigo, Spain; and  the 12^th WUTC will be held at Pocheon, Korea in May, 2012.  The FISU Executive Committee passed taekwondo as a FISU event for the World University Championships on May 8-10, 1986 at Zagreb, Croatia.

Taekwondo was first introduced as a Summer Universiade program in Daegu, S. Korea (2003). The popularity of university taekwondo has increased dramatically in every subsequent Summer Universiade from Izmir, Turkey (2005); Bangkok, Thailand (2007); and in Belgrade, Serbia (2009) where Poomsae was officially added along with Kyorugi in the 25^th Summer Universiade. Therefore, all future WUTC and Summer Universiades will hold combined competition for 5 divisions of Poomsae and 16 divisions of Kyorugi. The 26^th Summer Universiade was held in Shenzhen, China (2011) with the largest number of nations and athletes participating.   Kwangju, Korea will host the 28^th Summer Universiade in 2015.  A resolution was passed at Erzurum, Turkey on November 12-14, 2009 to include Taekwondo as a compulsory program from the 29^th Summer Universiade in 2017.

As you may know Dr. Min’s lifetime dedication as well as his never ending endeavors on developing University Taekwondo brought up a compulsory status in the Summer Universiade Games through FISU. It is such great news that Dr. Min and UCMAP’s leadership will continue to serve the University Taekwondo Movement in the next four years under FISU. Again, congratulations on Dr. Min’s recognition and reappointment!