Overview of Taekwondo

Overview

For some 2,000 years, a range of martial arts were practised on the Korean peninsula. During the early 20th century, taekwondo became the dominant form of martial art practised in Korea. Subsequently, taekwondo was designated as Korea's national martial art to be promoted internationally.

Taekwondo's first appearance was as a demonstration event at the Summer Olympic Games at Seoul in 1988. It appeared again as a demonstration sport at Barcelona in 1992. There were no demonstration sports at Atlanta 1996, but taekwondo reappeared as a full medal sport at Sydney 2000 and has maintained its full medal sport status at Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, London 2012, Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024.

Today, taekwondo is practised by an estimated 80 million people in more than 200 countries and territories, administered by five Continental Unions (Africa, Asia, Europe, Pan America and Oceania), making it one of the world's most popular sports.