摘要：Taekwondo,an ancient Korean martial art based mainly on the use of kicking techniques,became an official Olympic discipline in the 2000 Sydney edition. Its rapid spread in the immediate post-war period is mainly due to the continuous changes in the rules of the competition of combat (kyorugi),characterized by two mail goals from its origins: the safeguard of the competitors' safety on the one hand,and the search for the increasingly objective formula for assigning scores on the other. Recently,we have witnessed the introduction of protection kits equipped with electronic sensors,which almost completely exclude the interpretation of the score and human error. Moreover,it is clear that these variations and changes in the rules have substantially changed the entire performance model,and consequently the morphology of the typical combat athlete.The research was conducted through the collection and the statistics of the heights of the athletes who took part in the World Championship,from the first edition of Seul 1973 to the 2019 edition of Manchester. The research takes into consideration 216 athletes that arrived on the World Championship podium (gold,silver and bronze),all aged between 18 and 35 (senior categories),divided into 8 weight categories -54 kg,-58 kg,-62 kg,-67 kg,-72 kg,- 78 kg,-84 kg,+84 kg male and -47 kg,-51 kg,-55 kg,-59 kg,-63 kg,-67 kg,-72 kg,+72 kg female). The working hypothesis was to verify that the average height of the medalled athletes has been increasing before and after the regulation changing occurring between 2007 and 2009,favouring the biomechanical advantage dictated by longer lower levers (higher reach).The results obtained by comparing the average heights in both men and women confirm with a good approximation that the average height of the athletes has increasedbetween 2007 and 2008 editions due to an electronic scoring system introduction.For what concerns the conclusions,it's possible to confirm the starting hypothesis;the average height increases,bringing an important advantage in terms of biomechanical reach for the lower limbs.
