David Moon was born Dai-won Moon in the small village of Duk Hap south of Seoul. He is known as the Father of Mexican Taekwondo. He introduced taekwondo to Mexico in 1969. He begin practicing Tang Soo Do in Korea before emigrating to the United States in 1962. He earned his Black Belt at the age of 16. After emigrating to the U.S. he participated in numerous martial arts tournaments winning Allen Steen‘s U.S. Karate Championships 3 different times.
David Moon graduated from Texas Tech University with a degree in architecture and is also an alumnus of Kyung Hee University. He competed in various American martial arts tournaments between 1963 and 1968.
In 1968, after receiving an invitation from a friend, David Moon traveled to Mexico. According to Moon during his first visit,
“I’d teach, it was very tough and [the Mexican students] endured. that I liked, a lot of spirit, courage, attitude and devotion.”
On May 22, 1969 he arrived back in Mexico with the intention of living in the country and he stayed. In 1975 he became a naturalized Mexican citizen and he has four Mexican-born children.
In Mexico David Moon established Moo Duk Kwan, a school to “make Mexican taekwondo one of the strongest in the world”. The World Taekwondo Championships began in 1973 and Moon’s first team consisted of Isaias Duenas, José Luis Torres Galindo, José Luis Olivares, E Moran, Buika and Antonio Ramiro Guzman and they helped Mexico win 4th place. Mexico was represented by Moon’s school from World Championship until the sixth World Championship, which took place in Copenhagen in 1983. It was David Moon who personally trained, bankrolled and traveled with the Mexican athletes to these tournament.
David Moons student, Antonio Ramiro Guzman goes on to win the silver medal in the batamweights in 1975 and the Mexican Team takes 3rd place. Guzman wins the silver medal in 1977 in Chicago, Illinois, USA and the bronze medal in 1979, in Stuttgart, Germany, in the flyweight division.
In 1975, David Moon promoted the creation of the Federación Mexicana de Taekwondo.
During his life, David Moon taught over 300,000 students and 50,000 earned Black Belts. This earned him the title of “Gran Maestro”.
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