Moon Dae-Sung

Moon Dae-sung (; born September 3, 1976) is a retired 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 200 lb (91 kg) Olympic taekwondo athlete from South Korea. He won a gold medal at the 2004 Olympics held in Athens, Greece, in the heavyweight division after knocking out Greece's Alexandros Nikolaidis with a reverse kick.

Career He entered Dong-A University on a taekwondo scholarship in 1995 and performed consistently well in national competitions during his college years, though usually overshadowed by the dominant heavyweight champion Kim Je-Gyoung.

Upon graduation from Dong-A University in Busan, South Korea in 1999, Moon became a member of the Samsung Corporation Professional Taekwondo team. Many considered Moon to be the next Kim Je-Gyoung, two time Olympic Gold Medalist and also a member of the Samsung Professional Team and graduate of Dong-A University, in the heavyweight division of the Korean National team.

Since his high profile win at the Athens Olympic Games, Moon has become a well known celebrity in South Korea, owing to his performance in the Gold Medal round. He has become the official Audi Automobile Company's spokesman and has made numerous television and public appearances.

Moon is noted for his technical prowess, particularly his strong back kicks with his left foot, as well as a solid grasp of other core techniques indispensable to fighting in high level international and Korean domestic competitions.

Post career As IOC member In August 2008 he was elected as a member of the International Olympic Committee by the 120th IOC Session.

As a politician Moon ran for being a lawmaker in the first (gap) legislative district of Saha District under the Saenuri Party banner in 2012; he won the election.

Plagiarism scandal His doctoral thesis for Kookmin University, "Effect of Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) on Flexibility and Isokinetic Muscle Strength in Taekwondo Player", came to the attention of the public media in South Korea as a "copy-and-paste" plagiarism. There are a number of "copy-and-paste" paragraphs in introduction, literature review, and discussion section of the thesis.

The scandal later affected his rookie political career, but he decided to stay in the ruling party and maintained his innocence.

In March 2014, Kookmin University officially canceled his PhD. Moon launched a nullification lawsuit, which his opponents believe is a tactic to keep his seat in the IOC as well as the ruling Saenuri Party.