The Taekwondo competition at the Paris 2024 Olympics Games is set to be the biggest and best ever, with participant numbers, sport action, venue management and spectator engagement all soaring to new heights.
Biggest Ever, Best Ever
The competition - consisting of eight weight categories (four male, four female), runs over four days, from Aug. 7-10.
It is the biggest Olympic Taekwondo event ever, fielding 134 athletes. Of those, five are refugees and one is an Individual Neutral Athlete (AIN).
In a sign of the sport’s universality, 60 National Olympic Committees are represented. Of those, nine are making their Olympic Taekwondo debuts in Paris: Bulgaria; Czech Republic; Fiji; The Gambia; Guinea Bissau; Hong Kong, China; Palestine; Timor Leste; and Uruguay.
Raising the Game
Taekwondo does not stand still: It is continually innovating. Matches in Paris 2024 will see two major changes from Tokyo 2020.
Firstly, the competition’s three-round matches will all be fought in a “best of three” system. That means if an athlete wins the first two rounds, he or she wins the match.
Secondly, any athlete who suffers five gam-jeoms (penalties), automatically loses the round. That is down from 10 gam-jeoms in Tokyo.
Both changes are designed to make the game as tense and as dynamic as possible.
Historic Games, Historic Venue
2024 marks the 30th year since the Centennial Olympic Congress of 1994 adopted Taekwondo as a medal sport. That landmark will be celebrated with a reception at Paris 2024’s OLY House, the hospitality venue for Olympians, at 15:00-16:00 on Aug. 6.
The following day, battle commences – and the competition venue is a spectacle in its own right.
The Grand Palais, set on Paris’ most iconic thoroughfare, the Champs Elysees, was built as an arts venue for the Grand Exposition of 1900. The palace, featuring ornate stone facades and curved glass ceilings, has been specially repurposed for the 2024 Olympic Games, hosting both Fencing and Taekwondo.
Audience Engagement: On the Streets, in the Venue
In the Grand Palais, audiences will be able to experience Taekwondo combat first hand - virtually. After donning a virtual reality headset and AXIS system, anyone, will be able to feel what it is like to compete in the way of foot and fist.
In addition to the medal competitions, audiences will be treated to two special events on all four days. The Demo Team will perform and a special sport showcase will be displayed.
Though Olympic Taekwondo is an individual competition, the wider sport also features team combat. In Paris, mixed gender teams of male and female athletes from Brazil, China and Uzbekistan – the 2023 finalists of the World Cup Team Championships – plus a team from host France - will do battle.
These demonstrations and sport showcases will warm up the audiences before each day’s medal matches commence.
