The training camp kicked off with a lecture from the newly appointed WTF Secretary General, Mr. Jean-Marie Ayer, under the title of: “Olympic challenges to Taekwondo”.

The International Referees participating in this camp are the 30 Olympic Referees that have been selected for the London 2012 Olympic Gamesamong 120 referees.

The training program in Baku consists of:

– Review on General Competition Rules
– Review on Penalties
– Review on Hand Signals
– Review on Instant Video Replay
– Review on Competition Procedure
– Review on Scoring Criteria
– Video Analysis
– Ethics
– Game Management & Scoring Simulations
– Feedback Sessions with Instructors.

The first day started off with the revision of hand signals and general competition rules, and with all the relevant people present: Philippe Bouedo (WTF Technical Committee), Chakir Chelbat (Chairman of WTF Referee Committee), Jay Lee (Member of WTF Referee Division) and staff from Dartfish, among others.

The selection process of the 30 Olympic Referees started in January 2011 and took a whole year. The first part consisted of three selection camps; the first took place on January 14-17 in Baku, where 24 referees (18 from Europe, 6 from Africa) were selected from the best 75 European and 25 African referees.

Later on, in March 2-5 2011, the best 85 Asian and 15 Oceania referees were gathered in the selection camp in Guangzhou, China. Another 24 referees (19 from Asia and 5 from Oceania) were selected.

The third selection camp took place in Mexico in April 7th, where 12 referees were selected among 60 American referees.

The selection criteria in the first part of the selection process were: Medical Check-up (Eye sight, Blood Pressure, Hearing), Physical Test (Quick Feet Test, 20M Shuttle Run Test), Scoring Test by Swiss Timing, Game Management Test, Written Test on Competition Rules, English Oral Test, Instant Video Review Test by Dartfish.

The 60 selected International Referees were then evaluated in a series of championships starting with the 2011 World Taekwondo Championships and followed by all the qualification tournaments: World Qualification Tournament, Oceania Qualification Tournament, Pan Am Qualification Tournament, Asia Qualification Tournament, Africa Qualification Tournament, and European Qualification Tournament.

To select the final 30 Olympic Referees, the evaluation criteria used in such championships were the following:

– For Center Referee: Hustling, positioning, consistency in issuing a penalty, proper hand signals, application of rules, video replay procedure, procedure for knock down, procedure for emergency situation, overall match management.
– For Corner Judges: ability of scoring, evaluated by a computerized system.
– For Review Juries:  Quick decision making, percentage of corrections, application of rules

<Statistics of Olympic Referees for London 2012>