On 23 February, the Oceania Taekwondo Union (OTU) announced that the New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) would not be nominating any taekwondo athletes for the Olympic Games.

“On 30 January 2024, Taekwondo New Zealand posted a notice on its Facebook page announcing that it had selected 2 male and 2 female athletes to contest the Oceania Olympic qualification event to be held in the Solomon Islands on 6 April 2024. Despite this announcement, the New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) has confirmed the following:

• Taekwondo New Zealand is not a member of the NZOC

• Taekwondo New Zealand is not recognised by the NZOC

• For an athlete to participate at any Olympic games, they must be nominated by their own Olympic Committee.

• The New Zealand Olympic committee will not nominate any Taekwondo athlete to compete at the Paris Olympic games as there is no organisation that is recognised for the sport of Taekwondo in New Zealand. 

We are compelled to publish this announcement because in light of the announcement made by Taekwondo New Zealand, athletes may be under the misapprehension that they are eligible to compete in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games when in fact they are not. It is vital that all athletes and their families have access to correct information,” is written in the statement.

The governance disputes in New Zealand Taekwondo have been going on for years, since there are several organisations that claim to be the control body. An  organisation called Taekwondo New Zealand was ruling the sport for years and it was recognised by the World Taekwondo (WT) and NZOC. Later it changed the name to World Taekwondo New Zealand (WTNZ). WTNZ was the Member National Association in WT until 2021, and WT was doing his best to help the organisation.

The Interim Board had been established to help cement World Taekwondo New Zealand's position and was tasked with drawing up a new constitution as part of its governance efforts, as well as overseeing elections. But the elections were postponed several times. Finally on March 24 the elections were held and four days later its results were announced during the organisation's Annual General Meeting.

Jin Kuen Oh, New Zealand's coach at the last four Olympic Games, has been elected as the President of WTNZ, Kesi O'Neill as the vice-president. Darryl June was voted secretary general and Amanda Hight treasurer. Three others have been appointed to the remaining positions of the Board - Jamie Carpenter, Hyun Choi and Joan Fountain.

Seemed that the problems would be solved, but the election results were not admitted within the organisation. “These ‘elections’, which at the time were held under the auspices of WTNZ (the original TNZ), were not conducted in accordance with its constitution and as such were legally null and void”, is written in WTNZ’s official website.

After that Oh and his team set up another organisation, previously known as ‘“New Zealand Elite Taekwondo”. They changed the name to Taekwondo New Zealand, and in June 2021 the new TNZ was recognised officially by the WT and OTU, Jamie Carpenter was elected as a WT World Council member. WTNZ is not recognised now by WT and OTU. NZOC did not recognise the both organisations. The Olympic committee demands the two organisations to unify for the solution, but it seems that the dispute will still go on for a long time. 

WTNZ blames the TNZ that their executive board is not elected but self-appointed and can’t run the sport and states that WTNZ had held proper elections on 27th February 2022, in accordance with its constitution. At the same time TNZ has built a strong relationship with the WT. On his recent trip to Korea in January 2024, Oh visited and met with World Taekwondo (WT) President Dr Choue and Secretary General Seo, discussing issues relating to taekwondo in New Zealand and overseas. In his 2023 greeting speech Oh included “the meeting with the NZ Olympic Committee CEO and Chief Operations Officer to begin the process of recognition as the sole WT Style Taekwondo governing body in New Zealand” as an achievement for the organisation, but after a year the process is still ongoing.

This is not the first time that taekwondo athletes have been the victims of controversy. Andrea Kilday had an Olympic licence for Beijing 2008, but the NZOC did not give her the green light. The 16-year-old had to quit the sport, only to return years later and fight her way to Rio 2016. History could be repeating itself now, and it could be a huge blow to taekwondo in New Zealand, with athletes' Olympic dreams denied because of governance disputes.