What is “Sport” Taekwondo?

Taekwondo is a dynamic and exciting Olympic & Paralympic full contact Combat Sport as well as a traditional Martial Art. Great Britain is a highly successful nation on the World stage with GB Taekwondo international stars such as Jade Jones leading the way.

Athletes wear electronic body & head protectors that both score points and keep participants as safe from injury as possible in this full contact sport. These are supplemented with additional safety equipment such as shin, arm, groin and mouth guards.

Many British Taekwondo clubs concentrate solely on Sport Taekwondo training and competition whilst others may offer a mix of combat sport and Martial Art. Check with your local club to see what classes they offer and if they specialise in the competitive sport elements at a local and National level.

Find a Combat Sport Taekwondo Club

To find a Taekwondo club near you please use the Club Finder.

Please contact your local club to confirm training venues and times are as shown and to confirm that the club offers the combat sport sessions you are looking for.

For those who want to progress in Sport Taekwondo, participation opportunities exist at all levels, separated by age, gender and experience to ensure fair, safe but challenging local and national competition.

For those with the talent and dedication there are also performance pathways to support development to compete at international level.

British Taekwondo Sport Performance department manages the training and participation in international events of Cadet and Under 21 pathway athletes. Please see the performance section for more details.

GB Taekwondo is the UK Sport funded high performance body responsible for the management of elite junior and adult athlete programs, from its purpose built high performance centre in East Manchester.

Sport Taekwondo history at the Olympic Games

Demonstration sport

• 1988 Seoul Olympic Games
• 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games

Full medal sport

• 2000 Sydney Olympic Games
• 2004 Athens Olympic Games
• 2008 Beijing Olympic Games
• 2012 London Olympic Games
• 2016 Rio Olympic Games
• 2020 (1) Tokyo Olympic Games
• 2020 (1) Tokyo Paralympic Games

Our Olympians & Paralympians (full medal sport)

Here are details of GB Olympic and Paralympic Taekwondo athletes since the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia to the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo, Japan.

Our Olympians (Demonstration Sport)

Here are details of GB Olympic athletes at the 1988 and 1992 Olympic Games.