It took three days of competition and a scandal involving alleged fraud before the World Taekwondo Federation (WT) finally issued an official statement regarding the controversial bout between South Korea’s Seo Geon-woo and Chile’s Joaquín Churchill, held on August 9th at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
In the early hours of this Saturday, MASTKD received an official letter from WT, threatening legal action against our publication for calling out the victory awarded to the Korean athlete as fraudulent. This move comes as no surprise given the growing ethical concerns surrounding the organization, which until now had remained completely silent on the issue. (The Olympic Farce)
The controversy erupted when, during the second round of the -80kg match, the system declared the South American Churchill as the winner, only for the officials to intervene and reverse the decision, granting the round to Geon-woo and forcing a third round.
In fact, the errors began even earlier. Churchill was leading the second round when the Korean athlete executed a spinning kick, but the two extra points were not immediately awarded. Only after the round had ended were the points added, tying the score at 16:16. The central referee then relied on the system’s technical criteria, which declared Churchill the winner.
Having won both the first and second rounds, the match should have been Churchill’s. However, the Korean coach disregarded the Olympic spirit entirely, staging a dramatic protest.
“The match ended in a 16:16 tie, and the referee declared Churchill the winner based on the ‘kicking’ criteria. Technical officials noted that the result was incorrect according to the superiority criteria established in WT’s regulations,” is read in a part of the statement.
After several minutes of deliberation, the central referee’s decision was overturned, and the second round was awarded to the South Korean athlete.
“As a result, the officials intervened to ensure compliance with the established regulations.”
However, in its official statement, WT failed to explain which criteria were used or why human judgment prevailed over the system in overturning the decision.
Instead, the document focuses on excusing its actions.
What happened? Why did the system declare Churchill the winner? These are just some of the questions that continue to bewilder fans of Olympic Taekwondo who witnessed this event, either in person or virtually.
“World Taekwondo had prepared all measures to respond to and minimize such human errors. According to the official rules, in such cases, the match result can be corrected within 30 minutes after its conclusion,” WT explained.
Yet, the statement from the WT failed to acknowledge that these so-called human errors were far from minor.
It was only on the third day of competition—following the controversy of this match—that WT discovered the system had misprioritized the tiebreak criteria.
This is no small detail, as human error on the part of those responsible for checking the criteria could have affected the results of the previous two days of competition.
How many wrong decisions were misplaced on the prior two days before they realize this glitch on the system?
Despite this and the lack of transparency in its official communication, WT reiterated in its statement that it upholds the highest standards of transparency within the organization.
“World Taekwondo is committed to upholding the highest standards of integrity and ensuring that all athletes have a fair fight,” the statement concluded.
Statement from World Taekwondo
