(2002) Wushu's Olympic Promo - Events Clip

In 1999, the International Wushu Federation entered the formal recognition process by the International Olympic Committee. Two years later at the 112th IOC session on July 31, 2001, the hosting privileges of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games were given to Beijing, China. A few months later, the 113th IOC session took place at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games where the IWUF was fully recognized by the IOC. These developments laid forth the possibility for wushu to be included in the Olympic Games.

Later that year, the new IOC President Jacques Rogge announced the creation of the Olympic Programme Commission which called for a re-evaluation and reduction of events at the Games. Despite this, the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, the IWUF, and
the Chinese Wushu Association began to lobby extensively for the official inclusion of wushu. Athletes and organisations argued that wushu's inclusion would help culturally diversify the Games, and that the sport should follow the same Olympic path as judo and taekwondo.

In August 2002, the OPC Chairman Franco Carraro recommended to the IOC executive board that wushu should not be admitted to the 2008 Summer Olympics, reasoning that it was not a sport of global appeal and that it would add no substantial value to the Games. Shortly after this meeting though, the IOC reversed their decision and stated that wushu was once again under consideration.

In October of the same year, the IWUF created a promotional video to capture wushu's global appeal and standardization. The following clip is an excerpt from that video:

[a.peng]

This is such a cool promo. I really wish I had even known about wushu back then! 😭 🤩