World Taekwondo President Choue Chung-won said Tuesday the organization plans to use a 4-D camera that provides 360-degree images at the upcoming Summer Olympic Games.
Choue said the international taekwondo governing body is working to adopt such a system at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics for accurate video reviews and fancy kick highlights in bouts.
“Archery earned popularity with a high-speed camera despite the simplicity of the sport, and we realized that it‘s important to provide dynamic images,” Choue said at the press conference at the WT headquarters in Seoul. “In Tokyo, we want more cameras and to provide 360-degree images. We first plan to test such a system at the Grand Slam Champions Series in Wuxi, China, later this year.”
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In this file photo taken June 30, 2017, World Taekwondo (WT) President Choue Chung-won (R) poses for a photo with International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach at Taekwondo Park in Muju, North Jeolla Province. (Yonhap) |
At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, taekwondo will be played for four days near the end of the multi-sports event. All taekwondo matches will be played at Makuhari Messe Convention Center in Chiba, east of Tokyo, where wrestling and fencing will be also staged.
Although the exact date has not been announced, taekwondo could be played in the same period with karate, Japan’s traditional martial art that will make its Olympics debut. Karate will hold its events at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo for three days.
According to Choue, the organizers of the Tokyo Olympics asked the WT about hosting taekwondo earlier than karate, but its executive members decided to stick to tradition, which is to stage the event in the latter part of the Summer Games.
“Taekwondo is the more experienced sport at the Olympics (compared with karate),” he said. “Our executive members want to show taekwondo’s power.”
To boost taekwondo in the Chiba prefecture ahead of the Olympics, Choue said that the WT has already confirmed that it will host the World Taekwondo Grand-Prix Series in September 2019 and will come up with other related projects. (Yonhap)
