He said working as a referee helps keep him informed of current trends.

"I have realized that more aggressive attacks will become the dominant fashion," he said.

"So that is how we are training our young athletes today."

China has won three gold medals since taekwondo joined the Olympic program at Sydney 2000. Now more young Chinese are taking it up.

Fast learner

A fifth-dan black belt himself, Zhao remembers first reading about the sport in 1984 when, as a rookie, working for the national sports bureau, he assisted a key study sponsored by the nation's Cabinet to foresee China's development in the next century. But the nation did not have its own taekwondo administration until 1995, when Zhao joined the team after returning from a one-year program as deputy chief of a county in Shanxi.

"It was after that I enrolled as a referee and trained in Melbourne and Seoul," said Zhao.

Zhao's first world championship experience came during the WTF World Taekwondo Championship 1997 in Hong Kong. He then went on to be a referee for two other worlds before 2005, when he distinguished himself from about 80 referees to be selected as one of the five best at the worlds in Madrid.

Zhao also singled out his most memorable Olympic experience as the moment when he stopped Brazil's Diogo Silva from continuing a bronze-medal match that he was leading - but that could have cost him his life. Silva was knocked unconscious by a sudden attack in the second set from opponent Song Myeong Seob of South Korea during Athens 2004.

"We met again this February, and (he) told me that if I had let the match go on, he may have lost his life."

Zhao said he is looking forward to the upcoming Olympic competition, where a new rule will be applied to punish any athlete who fails to launch an attack within 15 seconds of being struck.