WTF Changes Its Name Because the Internet Changed What WTF Means

The federation had a three-letter problem.

For decades, the World Taekwondo Federation had a perfectly reasonable abbreviation.

WTF.

Then the internet gave those letters another life.

On Friday, 23 June 2017, the international governing body for taekwondo gathered for its General Assembly in Muju, South Korea. The World Championships were due to begin there the next day.

The federation had been founded in 1973. Its initials had served it through decades of international competition and the sport's arrival at the Olympic Games.

Outside the federation, meanwhile, WTF had become a familiar online expression of disbelief. For a sports organization trying to reach new audiences, the overlap was not especially helpful.

This was not a revelation that struck the delegates that Friday. Contemporary reporting says the federation had been considering a change as the slang use spread. The General Assembly marked the formal launch of the replacement identity, not the first discovery of the problem.

The new name was simply World Taekwondo. A new brand and logo were unveiled alongside it.

Federation president Chungwon Choue explained that the old acronym had developed negative connotations in the digital age, unrelated to the organization. Rebranding, he said, would help it engage with fans.

Taekwondo itself had not suddenly changed. Athletes were still preparing for the championships; Choue was re-elected president at the same General Assembly.

What had changed was the language around the sport. A set of initials that made complete sense in 1973 had become difficult to use publicly by 2017.

After 44 years, the World Taekwondo Federation became World Taekwondo.

WTF had decided it could no longer be WTF.