Taekwondo is a Korean martial art and combat sport involving punching and kicking techniques. The word Taekwondo can be translated as tae, kwon, and do. In addition to its five tenets of courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control and indomitable spirit, the sport requires three physical skills: poomsae (품새), kyorugi (겨루기) and gyeokpa (격파).
William Wayne Blanks is an American actor, martial artist and fitness personality. He was a nationally ranked competitor in semi-contact and point karate during the 1980s, winning a bronze medal at the 1981 World Games, before creating the Tae Bo exercise program.
Dae Sung Lee is a Korean-American master of taekwondo who holds the rank of 7th dan. Lee is a 10-time US national taekwondo team member and two-time Olympic coach. He served as taekwondo coach for the US Summer Olympic team in 1992.
Steven López is an American taekwondo competitor, a 2000 and 2004 Olympic gold medalist and a 2008 Olympic bronze medalist and 4th Dan in taekwondo. In 2001, he won the Lightweight Taekwondo World Championship, and in 2003 he won the Welterweight Taekwondo World Championship which he has since won in 2005, 2007 and 2009 making him the first Taekwondo fighter to win 5 World Championships. With 2 Olympic titles, 5 titles in taekwondo world championships and 1 title in taekwondo world cup he is the most titled champion after Hadi Saei who earns 9 world class titles.
Kyongwon Ahn, 9th dan (Kukkiwon), is a South Korean taekwondo master who founded the United Taekwondo Association (UTA) in the United States.
Diogo André Silvestre da Silva is a Brazilian taekwondo athlete. He finished in the fourth place in the men's 68-kilogram category in taekwondo at the 2004 Summer Olympics on August 27. At the 2012 Summer Olympics he finished in 5th in the same weight class. Silva failed to qualify for the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Karine Sergerie is the 2007 world champion in women's lightweight taekwondo. She is Canada's first female world champion in the sport.
Tommy Chang is a South Korean martial artist, stunt performer and actor. Chang is a 8th dan black belt in Taekwondo and 8th dan in Hapkido. He is the founder of the ReelStunts Action Team and the president of the Black Belt World Canada Taekwondo school.
Hadi Saei is an Iranian councilor and former taekwondo athlete who became the most successful Iranian athlete in Olympic history and the most titled champion in this sport by winning 9 world class titles . Earlier in his career and in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Saei had won the Bronze medal. He was elected as member of City Council of Tehran in 2006 local elections and was reelected in 2013 but lost the 2017 election. He is one of the three most medal winners olympians in the sport of Taekwondo.
Paige Arielle "McFierce" McPherson is an Olympic taekwondo competitor from the United States.
Park Yeon-Hwan is a South Korean Grandmaster of Taekwondo. He currently has earned a ninth-degree black belt and holds the title kwan jang-nim (Grandmaster) under the direction of the Kukkiwon. Park was the undefeated Korean national champion of Tae Kwon Do from 1971 to 1975 and the former coach of the U.S. Olympic and Pan-American Tae Kwon Do team.
Jay Warwick is a former United States Olympian in taekwondo. Warwick won bronze medals in the 1988 Seoul Olympics and 1987 Barcelona World Championships, gold at the 1986 Pan Am Championships and silver in 1982, bronze at the 1987 Pan Am Games and 8 national titles. In 1999, he became executive director of the United States Taekwondo Union then Director of Sport Partnerships with the United States Olympic Committee in 2003 and in 2018 became Secretary General of USA Taekwondo. Outside sports, he had a long career as a restaurateur.
Herbert J. "Herb" Perez is a former US Olympian in taekwondo and a politician. He was a gold medalist in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
Maicon de Andrade Siqueira is a taekwondo competitor from Brazil. He won bronze medals at the 2016 Summer Olympics, at the 2019 World Taekwondo Championships and at the 2019 Pan American Games, being the first Brazilian man to get an Olympic medal in that sport - and second overall after Natália Falavigna.
Luisito Pié, also known as Luis Pie, is a Haitian-Dominican taekwondo athlete who won the bronze medal in the 2016 Summer Olympics in the 58 kg category.
Gaël Texier is a Canadian taekwondo athlete and coach. In addition to being the Canadian Women's Taekwondo Champion for five years, Texier won bronze medals at the World Championships (1999) and Panamerican Championships and a silver medal at the Francophone World Cup (2002).
Taekwondo is one of the most popular and practiced martial arts in India. It is characterized by punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, jumping spinning kicks, and fast kicking techniques. The literal translation for tae kwon do is "kicking," "punching," and "the art or way of."
Edival Marques Quirino Pontes also known as Netinho is a Brazilian taekwondo athlete. He won the bronze medal in the 68 kg at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, the silver medal in the men's lightweight event at the 2022 World Taekwondo Championships held in Guadalajara, and a gold medal at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics in Nanjing, in the under 63 kg weight category.
Skylar Mi-Young Zanetel Park is a Canadian taekwondo athlete. She is the reigning Pan American Games champion after she won gold in Santiago at the 2023 Pan American Games and won a bronze medal at the 2019 World Taekwondo Championships. Park also won the gold medal at the 2018 Pan American Taekwondo Championships on the women's 57 kg weight category. She represented Canada at the 2020 Summer Olympics in the women's 57 kg weight category. Park won Bronze at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Women's 57 kg Taekwondo.
