Taekwondo at the 1988 Summer Olympics

Taekwondo is a martial art that is the national sport of Korea, which made it a natural for a demonstration sport at the 1988 Olympics. Taekwondo was a demonstration sport in 1988 and 1992 and then became a full medal sport at Sydney in 2000 and has remained on the Olympic Program since. World Championships for taekwondo were first held in 1973, and have always been dominated by the Korean fighters.

Taekwondo comes from the Korean words tae – meaning “to strike or break with foot”; kwon – “to strike or break with fist”; and do – meaning “the way of.” There are various styles of taekwondo, which developed originally out of other martial arts, including Okinawan karate. The style used in Olympic and world competition is the sparring system sihap gyeorugi.

In 1988 and 1992, men and women each competed in eight weight classes, as they do at the World Championships. When the sport became a medal sport in 2000, taekwondo was limited to four weight classes for each gender. In Seoul, Korean men won seven of the eight weight classes, failing only in the heavyweights.