Taekwondo 태권도Taekwondo Preschool
Promotion from one geup to the next can proceed rapidly in some schools, since schools often allow geup promotions every two, three, or four months. Students of geup rank learn the most basic techniques first, and then move on to more advanced techniques as they approach first dan. Many of the older and more traditional schools often take longer to allow students to test for higher ranks than newer, more contemporary schools, as they may not have the required testing intervals. View Taekwondo belt levels »
Taekwondo Practitioners
Physically, taekwondo develops strength, speed, balance, flexibility, and stamina. An example of the union of mental and physical discipline is the breaking of wooden boards, bricks or tiles, which requires both physical mastery of the technique and the concentration to focus one's power.
Aaron Cook
Country: United Kingdom 
Aaron Arthur Cook (born 2 January 1991 in Dorchester, Dorset, England) is a British taekwondo athlete who fought at the 2008 Summer Olympics. He is the -80kg European Champion and is ranked as World Number 2 in the −80kg men's category respectively. In December 2012 Cook confirmed a switch in allegiance from Great Britain to the Isle of Man. He intends to continue to represent Great Britain at Olympic level.
Anthony Obame Mylann
Country: Gabon 
Anthony Obame Mylann (born 10 September 1988 in Libreville, Gabon) is a taekwondo practitioner who represented Gabon at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Obame is currently coached by former two-time world champion Juan Antonio Ramos. He won the silver medal in the men's 80+kg category at the 2012 Olympic Games, becoming the first Gabonese athlete to win a medal at the Olympics. Obame said he felt "immense pride and joy" in having won the nation's first Olympic medal.
Gwladys Patience Épangue
Country: France 
Gwladys Patience Épangue is a French taekwondo athlete. Representing France at the 2005 World Taekwondo Championships in Madrid, she won the silver medal in the welterweight division, losing to Hwang Kyung-Seon from South Korea in the final. Épangue represented her country in the –67 kg class at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and won a bronze medal. In 2009, Épangue won her first World Championship gold medal in welterweight at the 2009 World Taekwondo Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Jade Jones
Country: United Kingdom
Jade Mary Jones MBE (born 21 March 1993) is a Welsh taekwondo athlete who represented Team GB at the 2012 Summer Olympics, winning Britain's first taekwondo gold medal, in the women's 57kg category. She attended Flint High School leaving aged 16 to take up taekwondo full-time. As of 2012, Jones is 1.69 metres (5 ft 7 in) tall and weighs 57 kilograms (126 lb). She competes as part of the GB Taekwondo Academy which is based in Manchester.
Jhoon Goo Rhee
Country: South Korea 
Jhoon Goo Rhee 이준구 (born January 7, 1932), commonly known as Jhoon Rhee, is a South Korean master of taekwondo who is widely recognized as the 'Father of American Taekwondo' for introducing this martial art to the United States of America since arriving in the 1950s. Rhee is ranked 10th dan. Rhee was inducted into the Taekwondo Hall of Fame in 2007, and he is listed as both the 'Pioneer of American Taekwondo' and the 'Pioneer of Taekwon-Do in Russia' there. Rhee is listed as a pioneer in the USA (1950s, 1960s, and 1970s) in Chang Keun Choi's list of taekwondo pioneers.
Juan Antonio Ramos Sánchez
Country: Spain 
Juan Antonio Ramos Sánchez (born August 18, 1976 in Barcelona) is a Spanish taekwondo practitioner. He is a two-time world champion, winning the finweight title in 1997 and the flyweight title in 2007. He also competed for Spain at the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games, finishing fourth and equal fifth respectively. He is married to Brigitte Yagüe, also successful in taekwondo. He was a coach at the 2012 Olympic Games for Anthony Obame of Gabon, where Obame won Silver medal in men's heavyweight. Now Ramos is the French national team coach.
Lee Dae Hoon
Country: South Korea
Lee Dae-Hoon (Hangul: 이대훈) (born February 5, 1992 in Seoul) is a South Korean Taekwondo practitioner. Originally a bantamweight (under 63kg), Lee temporarily went down in weight to flyweight (under 58kg) after the 2011 World Championships in order to compete in the 2012 Olympics where there are only four weight classes. Lee made his international flyweight debut at the 2011 World Taekwondo Olympic Qualification Tournament in Baku, Azerbaijan where he had his first international loss to 2008 Olympic silver medalist Gabriel Mercedes 14-12 in the semifinals. In May 2012, however, he captured his first flyweight gold medal at the 2012 Asian Taekwondo Championships, beating reigning Asian flyweight champion Pen-Ek Karaket 8-4 in the final bout.
Servet Tazegül
Country: Turkey 
Servet Tazegül (born September 26, 1988) is a world, Olympic and European champion Turkish taekwondo practitioner of Azerbaijani origin competing in the featherweight division. He competed in the men's 68kg class at the 2008 Summer Olympics held in Beijing, China and won the bronze medal. Throughout a majority of his fights he seems to be fighting in the Southpaw position, which is very powerful and is also used around the world by various martial artists. This position applies to a taekwondo competitor, who is stronger with his right leg, but places the right leg in front gaining more accuracy while also confusing the opponent.
Steven López
Country: United States of America 
Steven López (born November 9, 1978) is a 2000 and 2004 Olympic Gold medalist and a 2008 Olympic Bronze medalist and 4th Dan in taekwondo. In 2001, he won the Lightweight Taekwondo World Championship, and in 2003 he won the Welterweight Taekwondo World Championship which he has since won in 2005, 2007 and 2009 making him the first Taekwondo fighter to win 5 World Championships.
Tran Trieu Quan
Country: Vietnam 
Trần Triệu Quân (March 26, 1952 – January 12, 2010) was a Vietnamese-Canadian grandmaster of taekwondo and a professional engineer. He was president of one of the three International Taekwon-Do Federation groups from mid-2003 until his death. Trần held the rank of 9th dan black belt in taekwondo. Trần was promoted to 7th dan on July 1, 1990, 8th dan on December 3, 2000, and 9th dan on December 22, 2008. He was appointed President of one of the three ITF organizations on June 13, 2003.
Yeon Hwan Park
Country: South Korea
Yeon Hwan Park (born June 29, 1952) is a South Korean master of taekwondo. He currently has earned a ninth-degree black belt and holds the title kwan jang-nim (Grandmaster) under the direction of the Kukkiwon. Park was the undefeated Korean national champion of Tae Kwon Do from 1971 to 1975 and the former coach of the U.S. Olympic and Pan-American Tae Kwon Do team. In 1983 Park established the goal of increasing the popularity of the sport in a concerted movement towards having taekwondo become recognized as an official Olympic Sport. In response to the work of Park and other taekwondo leaders the International Olympic Committee granted the sport Demonstration Sport status in the 1988 and 1992 games and as a full medal sport, commencing with the 2000 games in Sydney, Australia.
There are five tenets defined in the International Taekwondo Federation (ITF) and several more in World Taekwondo (WT).
Perseverance ( 인내 in-nae ): "One will persevere time and time again until they have achieved a result which is adequate towards what one was trying to achieve." View Taekwondo Tenets »
RESOURCES
This article uses material from the Wikipedia articles "Aaron Cook", "Anthony Obame", "Gwladys Patience Épangue", "Jade Jones", "Jhoon Rhee", "Juan Antonio Ramos", "Lee Dae Hoon", "Servet Tazegül", "Steven López", "Tran Trieu Quan", and "Yeon Hwan Park" which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.
