PARIS, France (Aug. 4, 2024) – Kicking off the Taekwondo at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the WT Demonstration Team tonight delivered an iconic performance against an iconic backdrop.
A beautiful summer evening lured thousands of spectators to the forecourt of the landmark Hotel de Ville – Paris’ city hall since the 14th century – well before the Demo Team began their warm up. Once the show got started, the crowd swelled further, as more and more spectators flooded in to view the spectacle.
That got underway with classic poomsae moves set to classical music. Then came the signature moves: A serial of spinning, screaming aerial kick breaks. Those had the audience shrieking and the photographers diving for cover, as splinters from smashed boards rained down.
The tempo soared with creative poomsae and more breaks set to the beats of drumming, electronic music and rock. The show ended with a homage to the host city: Team members billowed fabrics dyed red, white and blue – the colors of the French flag – and unfurled an Eiffel Tower banner.
Finally, WT President Chungwon Choue and French Taekwondo legend Pascal Gentil mounted the stage to thank the team.
If you missed tonight’s show, not to worry: The Demo Team will be performing during the breaks in the Taekwondo competition, which begins its four-day run at the Grand Palais on Aug. 7
Choue and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo have spent years working on joint plans in not only the sportive, but also the humanitarian field.
In 2017, the city of Paris, WT’s charitable arm the Taekwondo Humanitarian Foundation and the French Taekwondo Federation agreed to jointly empower refugees and displaced persons. The vehicle of empowerment was training in Taekwondo – a discipline that imparts both self-defence and self-belief.
Some recipients of those training programs have been invited, as special guests, to join the audience at the Grand Palais.
