Taekwondo

The History of Taekwondo in FISU

The first World University Championship Taekwondo was held in 1986 at the University of California, in Berkeley, near San Francisco, on the initiative of the US University Sports Association. A close collaboration was created at that time between the Organising Committee, the Taekwondo World Federation and FISU. As a result, a high participation level was achieved at this “premiere”. Korea already dominated in the number of medals, and this trend was to increase. During the 1996 edition in Saint Petersburg, Korea showed no mercy, taking 10 medals out of 16. This astonishing performance was repeated in 1998 by this country where taekwondo is an established tradition.

However, since then other countries (for example France and Chinese Taipei) have also obtained strong results. Many renowned athletes have already taken part in FISU taekwondo championships, including Canada’s Jai Hoon Lee, who won gold at the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992. In the women’s events, Spain’s Elena Benitez also won gold in Barcelona, while others, such as Yu-Fang Chi (TPE), Yeun Yong Lee (KOR) and Myoung Sook Jung (KOR), were striving to become world champions. Some of the great university champions of the past are coaches today, providing their support to young athletes taking part in major international competitions for the first time.

An increasing number of competitors and growing interest of the Organising Committees of the Summer Universiades/FISU Games led to the inclusion of taekwondo into the optional programme of several FISU Games: Daegu in 2003, Izmir in 2005, Bangkok in 2007, Belgrade in 2009 and Gwangju in 2015 before becoming a mandatory sport in Taipei in 2017.

Taekwondo is a very important sport in the FISU programme and close cooperation with the international federation is the main goal for FISU.

Team Kyorugi Competition Rules

Team Kyorugi competitions will be organised for each gender with teams composed of four competitors according to the following total weight chosen from among the sixteen (16) Kyorugi and ten (10) Poomsae athletes of each participating country: 

Team Kyorgui Competition Weight Range: Total Weight

• Male: The total weight of four (4) starting athletes of each match should be 300kg or less.
• Female: The total weight of four (4) starting athletes of each match should be 260kg or less.

Poomsae Competition

1. men’s individual category
2. women’s individual category
3. men’s team category: three (3) competitors
4. women’s team category: three (3) competitors
5. mixed team category (pair): one (1) man and one (1) woman
Each country is authorised to enter in the Kyorugi competition a maximum of sixteen (16) competitors (eight (8) men and eight (8) women) and five (5) officials.
Each country may enter in the Kyorugi competition in each weight category:
– one (1) competitor.
Each country is authorised to enter for the Poomsae competition a maximum of ten (10) competitors (five (5) men and five (5) women) and four (4) officials.

Poomsae:
Each country can enter only one (1) man and one (1) woman in the individual competition.
Each country can enter only one (1) male team and one (1) female team in the team competition.
Each competitor may compete in more than one (1) category of the Poomsae competition.
Each athlete shall perform one (1) Recognised Poomsae and one (1) Freestyle Poomsae competition (Allocation of points: Recognised Poomsae 50% and Freestyle Poomsae 50%)

Each athlete may compete in both Kyorugi, team Kyorugi and Poomsae.
A team competition will be organised in each gender with teams composed of three (3) competitors.

Each country is allowed to enter one (1) male team and one (1) female team in the team competition.
At the first General Technical Meeting, the Head of Delegation or his/her representative shall confirm and sign the official list of competitors accredited by the CIC.

Minimum Requirements for Taekwondo

With the taekwondo CT approval, the Organising Committee must provide, for exclusive use, indoor sports facilities to cover all competition and training facilities for men’s and women’s taekwondo events. The WT regulations must be followed.