Bach Attends WT Council Meeting in Lausanne’s

Olympic House

2023 World Championships Awarded to Baku, Azerbaijan

In the presence of IOC President Thomas Bach, the World Taekwondo Council today awarded the city of Baku, Azerbaijan the 2023 World Taekwondo Championships during an Extraordinary Meeting held at the Olympic House in Lausanne.

Baku presented its bid to the Council during the meeting alongside Wuxi, China. The 2023 World Championships will be particularly special as they will fall during the 50th anniversary year of World Taekwondo.

“We congratulate Baku on being awarded the 2023 World Taekwondo Championships and we have no doubt that with all their experience and expertise, they will host a fantastic event to celebrate our 50th year,” said WT President Chungwon Choue. “We also thank Wuxi for their bid.”

Bach attended the meeting and heard a number of key reports from the Council. Bach presented Choue with the IOC President’s Trophy – Olympic House.

IOC Vice President Ser Miang Ng also briefly joined the meeting and addressed the members.

“For years, World Taekwondo has been an important partner to the IOC in terms of contributing to Olympic Agenda 2020 and Olympic Agenda 2020+5, especially in humanitarian activities for refugees and displaced persons,” Bach said.

“Now, it is really impressive that World Taekwondo is becoming the leader in virtual combat sport by combining physical activity and virtual reality. We look forward to further advancing our partnership and friendship,” the IOC president said.

Choue provided an update on the success of the recent Goyang 2022 World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships which saw more than 1,000 athletes from 63 countries, aged between 12 and 71 years, take part.

A report on Taekwondo’s contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and in particular its support of refugees and displaced persons, was also presented.

Special mention was made to the first ever Hope and Dreams Taekwondo Championships which was hosted by the Taekwondo Humanitarian Foundation (THF) on

March 19 for more than 200 refugees in Jordan. Choue emphasized that the Taekdowndo world is well and truly exiting the pandemic.

“With the highly successful World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships in Goyang last month and our Roma World Taekwondo Grand Prix approaching next month, we can see that Taekwondo is back in full swing,” he said.

WT is “delighted that our athletes and fans have the opportunity to enjoy world-class Taekwondo events once again,” he added.

During the meeting, the members also approved a motion to move the host city of the 2022 World Taekwondo Championships set to be held in Mexico, from Cancun to Guadalajara due to political and financial difficulties.

After the meeting, the Council were taken on a tour of Olympic House and then had a lunch hosted by Bach.