Taekwondo at the 2000 Summer Olympics
# Taekwondo at the 2000 Summer Olympics

Taekwondo was contested as an official sport at the Olympic Games for the first time at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. It had previously been a demonstration sport in 1988 and 1992. Medals were awarded in four weight classes each for men and women. Tran Hieu Ngan became the first Vietnamese Olympic medalist in this competition.

## Medal summary

### Men's events

| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| - | - | - | - |
| Flyweight (58 kg) details | Michail Mouroutsos Greece | Gabriel Esparza Spain | Huang Chih-hsiung Chinese Taipei |
| Lightweight (68 kg) details | Steven López United States | Sin Joon-sik South Korea | Hadi Saei Iran |
| Middleweight (80 kg) details | Ángel Matos Cuba | Faissal Ebnoutalib Germany | Víctor Estrada Mexico |
| Heavyweight (+80 kg) details | Kim Kyong-hun South Korea | Daniel Trenton Australia | Pascal Gentil France |

### Women's events

| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| - | - | - | - |
| Flyweight (49 kg) details | Lauren Burns Australia | Urbia Melendez Cuba | Chi Shu-ju Chinese Taipei |
| Lightweight (57 kg) details | Jung Jae-eun South Korea | Tran Hieu Ngan Vietnam | Hamide Bıkçın Tosun Turkey |
| Middleweight (67 kg) details | Lee Sun-hee South Korea | Trude Gundersen Norway | Yoriko Okamoto Japan |
| Heavyweight (+67 kg) details | Chen Zhong China | Natalia Ivanova Russia | Dominique Bosshart Canada |

## Medal table

| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | South Korea (KOR) | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| 2 | Australia (AUS) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 2 | Cuba (CUB) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 4 | China (CHN) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 4 | Greece (GRE) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 4 | United States (USA) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 7 | Germany (GER) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 7 | Norway (NOR) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 7 | Russia (RUS) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 7 | Spain (ESP) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 7 | Vietnam (VIE) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 12 | Chinese Taipei (TPE) | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 13 | Canada (CAN) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 13 | France (FRA) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 13 | Iran (IRI) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 13 | Japan (JPN) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 13 | Mexico (MEX) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 13 | Turkey (TUR) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (18 entries) | Totals (18 entries) | 8 | 8 | 8 | 24 |

## Participating nations

A total of 103 taekwondo jins from 51 nations competed at the Sydney Games:

| Argentina (2)  Australia (8)  Austria (1)  Benin (1)  Brazil (1)  Canada (1)  Chile (1)  China (3)  Chinese Taipei (4)  Colombia (1)  Ivory Coast (1)  Croatia (1)  Cuba (4) | Denmark (2)  Egypt (3)  Finland (2)  France (2)  Germany (3)  Great Britain (2)  Greece (3)  Guatemala (1)  Hungary (1)  Indonesia (1)  Iran (2)  Italy (3)  Japan (2) | Jordan (1)  Kuwait (1)  Lesotho (2)  Libya (1)  Malaysia (1)  Mexico (3)  Monaco (1)  Morocco (3)  Netherlands (2)  Nicaragua (1)  Norway (1)  Philippines (4)  Russia (2) | Saudi Arabia (1)  Slovenia (1)  South Africa (1)  South Korea (4)  Spain (4)  Swaziland (1)  Sweden (2)  Trinidad and Tobago (1)  Turkey (2)  United States (4)  Venezuela (1)  Vietnam (2) |
| - | - | - | - |

## Controversies

* Bronze medalist Chi Shu-Ju, Hamide Bıkçın Tosun, Hadi Saei and Pascal Gentil complained to the media about what they perceived as biased refereeing which made them lose their possible gold medal. Pascal Gentil even refused to be photographed with his fellow medalists Kim Kyong-Hun and Daniel Trenton in the medal ceremony. Gold medalist Steven López revealed some inside story in his family's 2009 book.
