▲ (Left) Acting-Chairman Jong-gap LEE of the TPF, (Right) President Dr. Stephan FOX of the UTS and AIMS at Gangneung Olympic Park, in Republic of Korea.  ©Seok-mu Mason KWON

Dr. Stephan FOX, president of United Through Sports (UTS) and Alliance of Independent Recognized Members of Sports (AIMS), visited Republic of Korea from Friday 19th to Sunday 21st January to attend the 2024 GANGWON Winter Youth Olympic Games (here-in-after referred to as GANGWON 2024), had a conversation with Jong-gap LEE, acting-chairman of the National Taekwondo Promotion Foundation (TPF), on Saturday 20th January, at Gangneung Ice Hockey Center.

As this GANGWON 2024 was a youth competition events, it was a must-attend event for Dr. FOX who is president of UTS that is leading the way to solve hunger, disability, youth, refugees, women and inequality around the world through sports. Dr. FOX is an executive member of the SportAccord (President Uğur ERDENER, SA) that are two largest mountain ranges in the sports world with International Olympic Committee (President Thomas BACH, IOC), is also president of the AIMS, one of IOC & SA umbrella organizations.

Acting-chairman LEE of TPF met and talked with Dr. FOX, who visited to watch Virtual Taekwondo demonstration at Gangneoung Olympic Park. In the converstaion, measures to promote Muju Taekwondowon as a hot spot in the world of international scale sports community through cooperation between TPF, UTS, and AIMS were discussed.

Dr. FOX said, “I am very happy to have a meaningful conversation with TPF officials, including acting-chairman LEE, and I sincerely hope that cooperation with TPF will provide an opportunity for UTS and AIMS to deliver a valuable message to the world of sports at Muju Taekwondowon. Although we meet this time in Gangneung-si city, Gangwon-do state, we hope to be able to visit Muju Taekwondowon through the official invitation from TPF at next time.”

Acting-chairman LEE also agreed with the purpose of the UTS movement project, said, “As youth education and development are one of the important business areas that TPF focuses on at the Muju Taekwondowon, the World Youth Festival (WYF) organized by UTS seems to be a meaningful event with a lot of empathy.”

Established in 2017, UTS is carrying out social activities in which the international sports federation (IF) of all sports participates in solving the problems of hunger, disability, youth, refugees, women, and inequality scattered on this planet.

Since 2018, UTS has held the World Youth Festival (WYF) every year to deliver social contributions for youth around the world to become one through sports regardless of nationality, race, gender, disability, and environment. Various IFs such as ▲World Taekwondo (President Dr. Chungwon Choue, WT) ▲International Federation of Muaythai Associations (President Dr. Sakchye Tapsuwan, IFMA) ▲Ju-Jitsu International Federation (President Panagiotis Theodoropoulos, JJIF) ▲Federation Internationale de Savate (President Julie Gabriel, FISav) ▲International Fistball Association (President Karl Weiss, IFA) ▲International Powerlifting Federation (President Gaston Parage, IPF) are participating in this UTS movements.

In addition, WYF of UTS was not only recognized as an official partnership recognition event by the IOC, but also was also recognized for its partnership with ▲Special Olympics (CEO Mary Davis) ▲International Paralympic Committee (President Andrew Parsons, IPC) ▲AIMS ▲SportAccord and Global Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF).

As for domestic activities in Republic of Korea, the World Martial Arts Masterships Committee (President Si-jong LEE, WMC) has supported UTS movements in major international events, and UTS-KOREA (President Jong-chul Woo, CEO Chang-jin LIM), which was established in 2021, is the only national organization of UTS and serves as a domestic donation organization. In December last year, UTS-KOREA held a national university final competition events for Baseball5.

Meanwhile, Muju Taekwondowon is located at 1482, Musul-ro, Seolcheon-myeon, Muju-gun county, Jeollabuk-do province and is a Taekwondo theme park operated by the National Taekwondo Promotion Foundation (TPF). Construction began in March 2009 on a total area of 2,314㎡ and was completed in August 2013. It opened on April 1st, 2014, and 320,000 visitors of domestic and foregn visit annually. If the Taekwondowon cooperates with the UTS, many pacticers from various martial arts IFs can be expected to visit.