Wushu

Wushu is a Chinese martial art. “Wu” in Chinese refers to the military or warfare, while “shu” refers to the method of performing an activity.

Wushu has never been on the Olympic Programme, but the International Wushu Federation (IWUF), which was founded on 3 October 1990 and has 162 national/territorial members as of January 2026, was recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 2002.

Remarkably, the IOC allowed the Beijing Organizing Committee to hold a wushu tournament during the 2008 Olympics, although demonstration sports were abolished after 1992, and no international sports events are normally allowed to be held in the host city during the Olympics. A youth wushu tournament would later also be held, this time in conjunction with the Nanjing 2014 Youth Summer Olympics.

Wushu is currently contested at the World Games in two of the disciplines overseen by the IWUF, sanda and taolu. The 2009-2013 editions of the competition first introduced both disciplines as invitational sports. In 2022, taolu was contested at the World Games as an official sport, with events for men and women, and the latest edition of the competition, in 2025, was the first to stage sanda and taolu both as official sports in its programme, also with events for both genders.