The 38th ITF European Taekwon-Do Championships, together with the 29th Junior European Championships and the 1st Pre-Junior European Championships in history were successfully concluded in Lublin last weekend.

During these tournaments, Grand Master Paul Weiler, as President of the ITF, took the opportunity to engage in a dialog with Inside The Games journalists, who were present in the southern Polish city to provide media coverage of Europe's most important Taekwon-Do event.

Although the competition was at a high level, Weiler, when asked about it, said: "Due to numerous meetings during the two days I spent in the sports hall, I didn't have many opportunities to watch the competitions. What I did notice, however, is that the level of the competitors is steadily improving and the differences in performance between the countries are becoming smaller."

Regarding the levelling seen in the championship, with historically dominant teams in the discipline no longer so dominant, Weiler, who has been leading ITF since 2019, added: "The dominance of some countries that we used to have no longer exists, and that's a good thing."

Regarding the goals of the ITF, the German said that although they are many, three main ones can be highlighted: the continued development of the ITF in Asia, the expansion of the concussion policy, and the improvement of the organisational structure.

Another important, albeit more long-term, issue is that of the Fusion Committee in countries where there is more than one taekwondo federation. Commenting on the importance of this committee, the ITF Board member for over 20 years said: "The Fusion Committee has the task of improving cooperation between national federations, which should lead to their merger. Its findings will go to the Executive Board for a decision, which will ultimately be ratified by Congress. 

"Therefore, it can be said that the work of this committee is of great importance because it points the way to the future. If the work is not successful, there is the possibility of a complete restructuring."

Digging deeper into the conversation, a lesser known point in international Taekwon-Do is what has happened in Spain, where both representative organisations of the martial art, which originated in South Korea 69 years ago, can coexist and work together.

Spain is the first country in the world to achieve not only cooperation, but also the organisation of tournaments and joint support between the two Taekwon-Do specialties.

In this regard, the Grandmaster confirmed that "we have been following and supporting the work of the Spanish federation with interest. It is also a sign that we do not consider WT as an enemy, but on the contrary accept the existence of two TKD federations with different styles".

Weiler later added: "In fact, we have similar situations in other European federations where the ITF and WT (World Taekwondo) cooperate very well."

Finally, the ITF President (re-elected for 2023-2027) was able to elaborate on the relationship with WT, saying: "As I said, we do not see WT as an enemy, but as one of the most important TKD organisations in the world with its own characteristic style. We believe that both can learn from each other and even complement each other to make TKD more popular worldwide.