Olympic Taekwondo

128 athletes compete for 8 gold medals

Although Taekwondo can be traced back by at least 2000 years, it has only become a modern sport in the form currently seen today, since 1955. This was primarily due to the inability of several of the main bodies to agree on the terms and rules of the game.

The direct translation of the word Taekwondo is “the art of the foot and the fist” which is reflective of this martial art derived from early Korean days. Each competitor has a scoring area and the aim is for the opponent to hit or kick the other competitor within this scoring area.

Each round is two minutes long and there are three rounds in total. It is played within a ten square metre part of a mat and will go to sudden death if no winner emerges after the three rounds.

Taekwondo was first seen in the Olympic Games as a demonstration sport in 1988 and was given full medal status in 2000. The event is split up into four weight categories with events also split into men and women. Due to the speed with which competitors move, it has been necessary for them to wear different colours so that the judges can make accurate decisions.

The sport is dominated by competitors from Korea, China and the USA, although with 50 million active participants in 157 countries this dominance has decreased slightly in recent years.