Wushu's Youth Olympic debut an important step of world recognition

"The aim of Wushu is to prevent the use of force," he added.

On its path to the Youth Olympic Games, Wushu has gone through ups and downs. The International Wushu Federation submitted its application for inclusion to the IOC in 2001, 2008 and 2011, but failed each time. The first two applications were rejected by the IOC in the initial stage. The third application in 2011 made it to the final round of voting for participation in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games but fell agonizingly short and missed out once again.

Wushu did appear as special exhibition events at both the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympic Games which greatly improved the image and international recognition of the sport.

Zhang explained that after entering the Olympic Games, Wushu will become the work of the Olympic Committees of various countries and regions.

"This will put forward higher technical requirements for the International Wushu Federation," Zhang said.

"Next, we should further reform the competition rules and performance level of Wushu according to Olympic standards. So we will soon launch the international classification criteria of Wushu for young people. Based on these elements, we will design more routines that young people will like," Zhang concluded.