Rui Bragança

The Sport

Taekwondo

Taekwondo is a martial art that became an official Olympic sport in Sydney 2000.

Taekwondo means the way of the hand and feet through the mind. Even though it is a fight, it has, like every other martial art, a philosophy that guides its students. In taekwondo the 5 principles are: Courtesy, Integrity, Perseverance, Self Control and Indomitable Spirit.

The Fights

The fights are an Olympic sport that divides into eight categories: 4 male categories and 4 female categories.

The Olympic tournament is a direct elimination tournament and the fights are 3 rounds of 2 minutes with 1 minute breaks where the one with most points wins.

The majority of the points are scored with leg techniques. A kick to the vest 2 points, kick to the head 3 points. If there is a rotation before the kick, 2 extra points are awarded. Punches to body are worth 1 point.

Each gamjeong (fault) means a point to the opponent with a maximum of 10 gamjeongs, otherwise the athlete is disqualified.

All of this means that taekwondo is a sport that not only demands technique and strength to be able to achieve the velocity and stamina required to make the legs fly, but also a lot of tactics to win a fight.

3 rounds

Of 2 minutes
1 minute break

1 pt

Punches to body

2 pts

Kick to the vest

4 pts

Rotation kick to the vest

3 pts

Kick to the head

5 pts

Rotation kick to the head

Qualification
and Ranking

The Olympic qualification has 2 ways:

Through the Olympic ranking in which the 5 first athletes in December 2019 get a direct ticket for Tokyo 2020.

Athletes who don’t go through the Olympic ranking can participate in a continental tournament where the athletes who reach the final get the ticket.

To get points for the ranking competitions have different values:

World Championship - 120 points
European Championship - 40 points
Grand Prix - 40 points
Opens - 10 to 20 points

The athlete who comes first gold gets the total points , the athlete who comes second gets 60% of the points and so on. Athletes who can’t make weight or don’t win any fights don’t get any points.

Best
results

Gold medals

Silver medals

Bronz medals

See more results