Penalties in taekwondo

Penalties in taekwondo are awarded for offences such as grabbing, holding, feigning injury, pushing, and turning ones back on an opponent.
The most serious taekwondo offence is Gam jeom, which leads to one point being deducted. Examples of Gam jeom include throwing an opponent, deliberately stepping over the boundary line, pulling an opponent to the ground, and attacking the face with anything but the feet.
If an opponent is knocked to the ground then the referee begins a 10 second count. A knockdown occurs if any part of a contestants body touches the floor apart from the foot. There is a mandatory eight second count before the referee decides whether the bout should continue.
A knockdown becomes a knockout if a competitor cannot regain his or her feet by the count of ten seconds or if the referee decides he or she is unfit to continue at the end of an eight count.
If a contest ends with the competitors level on points, then the contestant with the most points before penalties were deducted is the winner. If the scores are still level after this, then the referee awards the contest to the fighter he believes to have been the most willing to attack. The only exception to these rules occurs in the final of a competition, when a tied contest will go to an extra sudden death round where the first to score a point wins. If no result is achieved during this round then the final decision once again lies with the referee.