Taekwondo at the Summer Olympics

Taekwondo debuted at the Summer Olympics as a demonstration event in 1988 in Seoul, South Korea, where the opening ceremony included a synchronized mass performance by hundreds of participants. It returned as a demonstration sport four years later at the 1992 Barcelona Games. The martial art was elevated to a full medal sport starting with the 2000 Sydney Olympics and has remained on the program ever since.

The push to get taekwondo into the Olympics began in the United States in 1974, when it was accepted into the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), an organization that sets national standards for sports. At that time, the AAU’s taekwondo division initially used rules from the U.S. Taekwondo Union or earlier Korean associations, rather than the World Taekwondo Federation’s technical rules (the WTF was founded in 1973, but its rules were not adopted by the AAU at that time). In 1975, the sport became an affiliate of the General Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF), which works with the Olympic movement to foster cooperation among international sports bodies. The World Taekwondo Federation gained recognition from the International Olympic Committee in 1980. The following year, taekwondo was a featured event at the World Games, a competition for non-Olympic sports. In 1982, it was designated an official demonstration sport for the 1988 Seoul Games and the 1992 Barcelona Games. During 1986 and 1987, taekwondo was included in the World Cup, Asian Games, All-Africa Games, and Pan American Games. Finally, in 1994, the IOC approved taekwondo as an official Olympic sport for the 2000 Sydney Games.

The Olympic competition uses a single-elimination bracket for each weight category. The winner of the final earns the gold medal; the loser receives silver. A repechage system determines the bronze medalists. In the morning session, single-elimination matches run until the two finalists are set. At that point, any competitor who lost to one of those finalists enters the repechage, based on the idea that they might have been the third-best fighter if they had not faced a top-two opponent. In the repechage, the losers of the elimination semifinals are seeded directly into the repechage finals, but on the opposite side of the bracket. Other losers advance unseeded, staying on the same side of the bracket they competed on during elimination.