Factbox: Taekwondo

Factbox on taekwondo at the August 8-24 Beijing Olympics:

HISTORY

The martial art of taekwondo traces its origins back 2,000 years to Korea. The World Taekwondo Federation was formed in 1973 and the first world championships were held in the same year.

Taekwondo featured as a demonstration sport at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and the 1992 Barcelona Games, and was included as an Olympic sport for the first time in Sydney in 2000.

EVENTS

Four weight categories in men's events and four in women's. Preliminaries, repechage, bronze-medal matches and gold-medal contests in each class will be held on a single day.

OLYMPIC QUALIFICATION

Both genders will have 62 representatives plus four invitation places of either gender.

2004 CHAMPIONS