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.
There are 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.
Both genders will have 62 representatives plus four invitation places of either gender.
The events begin on 20 August and run until 23 August.
2004 CHAMPIONS:
Men:
Under 58kg: Chu Mu Yen (Taiwan)
Under 68kg: Hadi Saei Bonehkohal (Iran)
Under 80kg: Steven Lopez (US)
Over 80kg: Moon Dae-sung (South Korea)
Women:
Under 49kg: Chen Shih Hsin (Taiwan)
Under 57kg: Jang Ji-won (South Korea)
Under 67kg: Luo Wei (China)
Over 67kg: Chen Zhong (China)
VENUE:
Gymnasium of University of Science and Technology, Beijing
