2020 Armor Meets the World Taekwondo Federation – Message from CEO
The 20/20 Armor team and I visited Korea for 2 weeks during the 2016 Korea Open to share with the president of the World Taekwondo Federation, Dr. Chungwon Choue, our vision for 20/20 Armor. The WTF is the official governing body of taekwondo worldwide, and a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). I am happy and proud to say that we got an overwhelming positive reception. The WTF is looking forward to the next phases of our development in our competition model, which we are in the process of building.
The vision we shared with the WTF is a taekwondo that can be understood in less than 3 seconds when watched for the very first time and that shows the great athleticism and strategic prowess of its athletes; a taekwondo that can grow to over 160 million people (from the 80 million that practice today) in 12 years; and a taekwondo that can be played as a professional sport and shown and enjoyed on TV just like basketball or soccer.
In such a short period since 20/20 Armor launched (Feb 2016) we have made huge strides and progress at the international stage. We achieved our phase one sales targets for the recreational model and are on target for year 1 sales. We have got overwhelming support from Olympic coaches & athletes, taekwondo business owners and taekwondo fans. With the successful conclusion of this trip in Korea, we achieved a very important milestone in our company history, and are well underway with our plans for the competition model and achieving our overall company vision.
The WTF president has said about the recent changes taekwondo is undergoing for the 2016 Olympics in Rio: “The biggest reason for these changes is to provide taekwondo fans more excitement as we learned that any sport that doesn’t satisfy its spectators and TV viewers will not survive on the Olympic stage”. The WTF is very aware that we need a sport that is easy to understand, and fun to watch or Taekwondo will not be in future Olympics. It is for this reason that they see a lot of promise in 20/20 Armor and its patent pending energy scoring system.
We met and shared our vision with the decision makers and influencers at the WTF. Professor Jung Kook Hyun (4 x World Champion, 88 Olympic gold Medallist, WTF Technical and Development Committee Chair), professor Chin Seung Tae (3 x World Champion), Chairman Choi (Electronic Guards Advisor to the WTF), Mr Lee (president of the Korean Taekwondo Association), the very friendly staff at the WTF, Dr. Jin Bang Yang (Director General), and also the president of the WTF, Dr. Chungwon Choue.
Thank you to the founding 20/20 Armor team: William, Tony and Austin for their unwavering passion and commitment to change taekwondo worldwide. To world and Olympic champions Sayeed Najeem, Herb Perez and Olympic coach Patrice Remarck for believing in our vision, and a special thank you to professor Jung Kook Hyun who is an inspiration to so many world wide. Before I met professor Jung, I was inspired by his athletic accomplishments. After I met him, I was inspired by his kindness, open mind, and approach to people and life. He is truly the ambassador of Taekwondo.
Ali Ghafour
CEO & Co-Founder, 20/20 Armor