I hope you're right, and perhaps you can show me the links. But I have been under the impression that only black belts certified by the Kukkiwon and/or the WTF can compete in the Olympics.

Just go to the KKW site itself, there they say only that a cert from them is seen as valid, nothing on there says you must have theirs, no other sport requires it, the rules are the same for all, boxing, wrestling & judo etc, just win whatever your home country requires & you carry the flag, in fact several noted non-TKD have already played & won, i did see either an e-mail or website announcement about the trials in the UK, I am sure you can gogle it

Alex Gillis in his blog said that only black belts certified by the KKW can participate in the Olympics, and he references the KKW website, which also says the same thing.

The Canadian Olympic TKD selection criteria also says the same thing.

The only thing that matters is that you win the national tournaments, qualify, and probably MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL. PAY YOUR WTF FEE'S.

However in order to compete you have to be a member of WTF or you can't compete in the national tournaments.

Exactly. So ITF members can't enter the Olympics, unless they pay money to the WTF and the Kukkiwon, now run by former convicts.

I stand corrected, actually I am sitting, but you are right. The KKW does say that. However the KKW does not control the Olympic sport of TKD, the WTF does. I can only imagine that is to show their prestige & is a marketing ploy to get people to buy theirs.
There is simply no other sport in the Olympics that mandates any certification to my knowledge. I guess the amswer should come from the IOC itself, as I would not trust any party that has a stake in the issue.

http://www.uksport.gov.uk/pages/fighting_chance/

This is the link to the call for any athelete to try out for their team. I guess anyone can challenge the monoploy in court, using the IOC mandate as its proof, but in reality who would do it? It would be far easier to just pay the fees. Now if north Korea ever decided to become a member nation of the WTF, I am sure that they would not list a KKW certificate as a requirement.

ITF Unity,

TKDUSA also has it listed as a requirement. I agree with you though, it is the IOC that deems what SPORTS are official olympic sports, they should also set the criteria for an athelete participation (though the IOC is a pretty corrupt org too)

Don't get me wrong, websites can list whatever they wish, that does not in my view make it so. I have read, but can not remember where that the IOC specifically said that the WTF can not make it a requirement to participate in the Olympics to have a specific certificate, as no other sport has this requirement. All that has to happen is that the NOC must have a process to select a team for the Olympics. I am sure that if someone challenged this, they would be backed up by the IOC. Problem is, few know this & many wish to get the prestigous KKW BB cert anyway. In the case of talented players that are recruited that do not have a KKW cert, those recruiting can get that piece of paper easy I would assume