Taekwondo at the 2012 Summer Olympics

Taekwondo at the Games of the XXX Olympiad
Venue	ExCeL London
Dates	8–11 August 2012
Competitors	128 from 63 nations
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Taekwondo competitions at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London was held from 8 August to 11 August at the ExCeL London. Competition was held in eight weight categories; four for men, and four for women.

The Taekwondo competition at the 2012 Games included 128 athletes, 64 in each gender, 16 in each of the eight weight divisions. Each competing nations were allowed to enter a maximum of four competitors, two of each gender. Each nation would therefore be eligible to compete in a maximum of half the weight categories.

Four places were reserved for Great Britain as host nation, and a further four was invitational as decided by the Tripartite Commission. The remaining 120 places were allocated through a qualification process, in which athletes won quota places for their respective nation.

If a nation which qualified through a Qualification Tournament relinquishes a quota place, it would be allocated to the nation of the next highest placed athlete in the respective weight category of that tournament as long as the addition of the place does not exceed the maximum quota for that nation.

Due to the increasing controversies happened in the previous Olympics Taekwondo which led to speculations that this competition might be removed from the Olympic program, the World Taekwondo Federation introduced new electronic scoring system and instant video replays in anticipation to make the competition more transparent and fair. As a result, for the first time in Olympic Games Taekwondo, eight gold medals were awarded to eight different NOCs. Europe took the lead while South Korea lost its dominance in the previous Olympics and for the first time, did not finish top of the Taekwondo medal standings. Steven López, Alexandros Nikolaidis and Sarah Stevenson, the only three legends who participated in every previous three Olympics, were all eliminated in the preliminary round. Lee In Jong and Cha Dong-Min became the first two Korean Taekwondo practitioners who could not secure any medal in the Olympics Taekwondo history. Anthony Obame became Gabon's first Olympic medalist.