World Taekwondo

On 28 May 1973, the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) was established in Seoul, Korea (South), to govern the sport of taekwondo internationally (sometimes also seen as tae-kwon-do). The inaugural World Taekwondo Championships for men taekwondokas was staged in Seoul in the days prior to the federation’s foundation. The first World Championships to also include women’s taekwondo events would be staged in 1987, in Barcelona, Spain.

The Korean sport first appeared on the Olympic stage in Korea, as a demonstration sport at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, reappearing with the same status at Barcelona 1992. On 4 September 1994, the International Olympic Committee accepted Taekwondo as an official Olympic sport, with events for men and women, starting at the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000.

Taekwondo has also been part of the programme of the Youth Summer Olympics since its inaugural Singapore 2010 edition, with events for boys and girls.

The federation also oversees the discipline of Para Taekwondo. On 30 January 2015, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) accepted Taekwondo as an official Paralympic sport, starting at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

After it was realized what the abbreviation stood for in English slang (containing a curse word), the federation’s name was changed to World Taekwondo (WT) in 2017. As of January 2026, World Taekwondo has 215 affiliated member nations. The federation’s headquarters is located in Seoul, and its current president is South Korea’s Choue Chung-Won.