In the beginning of the 20th century, Korean martial arts were many and varied. In 1955, a group of Korean martial arts leaders chose taekwondo as the definitive Korean martial art, with the intention of promoting its international development.
The strategy worked: the sport won over the world and is one of the most recent to join in the Olympic Games, starting in Sydney 2000. Today, competitions take place within four weight categories for men and women.
The contests are divided into three rounds of three minutes, and there are three ways to win: knocking out the adversary, earning the greatest number of points or upon declassification of the adversary.
