VISTA.

§ 1VISTA — Virtual Immersive Sport Taekwondo for All — answers a problem the sector has been slow to articulate. Taekwondo coaches see digital tools coming, but most have neither the training nor the equipment to put them to work. A 2022 industry survey found one in five coaches use no digital tools at all, and the gap widens further for volunteers, women coaches, and those in remote areas.

§ 2The project builds on the IOC's introduction of Virtual Taekwondo at the 2023 Olympic Esports Series and World Taekwondo's subsequent rollout of a motion-tracked VR sparring system. VISTA takes that hardware and wraps a coaching curriculum, a capacity-building programme, and a set of safety and inclusion protocols around it — so the technology reaches the dojang floor rather than sitting in a federation cupboard.

§ 3Five work packages carry the project across 24 months: a VR taekwondo curriculum aligned with World Taekwondo standards; a digital-training programme for coaches; pilot testing inside federation networks; demonstration competitions; and a dissemination plan designed to seed adoption in other martial arts. At least half of pilot participants will be drawn from underrepresented groups — Paralympic coaches, female coaches, volunteers, and those in rural or low-income settings.

§ 4The consortium pairs sport federations (FITA in Italy, RFET in Spain, Levallois SC Taekwondo in France) with sports-technology partners (Sport Singularity in the Netherlands, Sports Tech Türkiye, Atahun Academy in Hungary), and is coordinated by Oslo Orcas IF, who bring the grassroots-club perspective and prior Erasmus+ leadership from FINAS and DIGIBRAND.