Taekwondo in Taiwan: From the Marines to Olympic Gold – Snack 05

Taekwondo may be Korean, but few places have embraced it as enthusiastically as Taiwan. Introduced in the 1960s for the military, the fast-kicking martial art quickly spread to the wider community. Before long, Taiwan had become one of the world’s taekwondo powers; it even sent trainers to the Middle East to teach the Jordanian royal guard. But peak global glory for the island’s taekwondo fighters came at the Athens Olympics in 2004, when Taiwan won its very first Olympic gold medals.