We know the names of first participants in taekwondo

The European Olympic Committees (EOC) and the European Taekwondo Union (ETU) have announced the names of 208 athletes who will compete in taekwondo at the III European Games Krakow-Małopolska 2023. Each of the eight men’s and eight women’s categories will also include Polish representatives.

Taekwondo competition will appear in the European Games’ programme for the second time. The discipline made its debut during the inaugural Games in Baku in 2015. Now in Krynica there will also be an opportunity to admire the best athletes from the Old Continent.

Eight men’s and women’s categories are included in the programme. European Olympic Committees (EOC) and the European Taekwondo Union (ETU) have jointly announced the names of 208 male and female athletes, 13 from each weight category, who will compete at the III European Games.

Among them we will see the Olympic champion from Tokyo, Italian Vito Dell’Aquila, as well as two silver medalists of the event, Briton Bradly Sinden and North Macedonia representative Dejan Georgievski. In the women’s competition at the European Games Kraków-Małopolska 2023 we will see gold medalist from Tokyo, Croatian Matea Jelić, as well as Olympic vice-champions Adriana Cerezo from Spain, and British Lauren Williams.

We will also see representatives of Poland in each of these categories. Athletes from our country will be selected based on the national ranking, which includes World Championships tournaments. The final Polish team will be selected after the last ranking tournament, which will be held in April in Innsbruck. The stars of our team should be Aleksandra Kowalczuk (+73 kg category), multiple medalist at the European Championships and fifth at the Tokyo Olympics, and Patrycja Adamkiewicz (-57 kg category), multiple medalist at the European Championships and eleventh at the Tokyo Olympic Games.

One place in each weight category will also go to the winners of the qualifying tournament, which will be held in Romania on April 8-9. The last will be filled with male and female athletes with the so-called wild card, awarded before the start of the European Games.

“Many thanks to the Association of European Olympic Committees for putting taekwondo back on the European Games programme. I congratulate all those who already know they will for sure perform at the event,” said ETU President Sakis Pragalos. “For our athletes this means the opportunity to gain valuable points for Olympic qualification on the way to Paris,” he added.

“We are happy to welcome taekwondo back to the European Games, and we know that it will provide a lot of excitement for all the fans watching the sport whether live or in front of the TV. I want to thank President Pragalos and the entire ETU for their hard work and fruitful cooperation during the preparations for the Games, and I look forward to welcoming them and the athletes representing the federation in Kraków in June,” said Hasan Arat, a member of the Executive Committee of the European Olympic Committees.

The competition at the European Games will also be a chance to earn ranking points, determining Olympic qualification for Paris. As a result, the competition in Kraków, which will be held June 23-26, will be attended by crowds, and filled with emotions from the first to the last day.

The venue for the taekwondo competition will be Krynica-Zdrój Arena.