World Taekwondo President Chungwon Choue has held an online meeting with the World Taekwondo Athletes’ Committee ©World Taekwondo

World Taekwondo President Chungwon Choue held an online meeting with the World Taekwondo Athletes’ Committee today to discuss ways the International Federation can better support athletes' physical and mental health and prepare them for a return to sport.

Online educational training is already on offer to athletes from World Taekwondo, and it is hoped that this can boosted by working with the International Olympic Committee programme Athlete365 Career+.

The International Federation said it is also examining ways to bring in new revenue to direct to a fund for athletes.

"The Athletes’ Committee has a very important role to play in ensuring that World Taekwondo continues to listen and represent the interests of the athletes," Choue said. 

"We encourage the Committee to share the views of the athletes on how we should safely return to training and competitions, and together with the Medical Committee will use this to develop guidelines. 

"We have also welcomed their feedback on how athletes are dealing with the current challenges and the ideas they can provide on how we can better help athletes manage their mental health."

Pascal Gentil is "proud of the efforts of World Taekwondo" ©Getty Images
Pascal Gentil is "proud of the efforts of World Taekwondo" ©Getty Images

Pascal Gentil, who co-chairs the Athletes’ Committee, praised the speed of the World Taekwondo response.

"I am very proud of the efforts of World Taekwondo," Gentil said.

"I am happy that World Taekwondo responded very quickly and adapted to the situation to provide online training for athletes and other support.  

"For sure, we have challenges and Olympic qualification is one area we need to address but as a former athlete I hope that Tokyo 2020 will take place next year in the most healthy and sustainable way."

Nadin Dawani, Gentil's co-chair, added that providing athletes with educational materials was "an area that we are committed to working on and promoting more". 

Dawani concluded: "Athlete safety and mental health is of course our major priority and we need to look at what measures we put in place when competitions do return to make sure that athletes are safe."

World Taekwondo said that 10 of its 18 commissions, committees and the ad-hoc committee dedicated to developing urban and beach taekwondo had met virtually with the President lately.

The others - among them the Juridical Committee and the Sustainability Committee - are due to meeting with the President in the coming weeks.