Rome set to stage spectacular opening World Taekwondo Grand Prix Series 2026

A total of 111 athletes from 29 countries will compete at the World Para Taekwondo Grand Prix, followed by 255 athletes from 52 countries and the Taekwondo Refugee Team for the three-day World Taekwondo Grand Prix.

Para Taekwondo competition will be held across five weight categories for men: M K44 -58kg, M K44 -63kg, M K44 -70kg, M K44 -80kg, and M K44 +80kg, as well as five for women: W K44 -47kg, W K44 -52kg, W K44 -57kg, W K44 -65kg, and W K44 +65kg.

Several Paris 2024 Paralympic gold medallists will be in action, including Israel’s Asaf Yasur, Türkiye’s Mahmut Bozteke, Azerbaijan’s Imamaddin Khalilov, Uzbekistan’s Asadbek Toshtemirov, Mongolia’s Surenjav Ulambayar and Brazil’s Ana Carolina Silva de Moura. The 2025 Para Taekwondo Male Athlete of the Year Ayoub Adouich of Morocco will also compete, along with Zakia Khudadadi, who made history with a bronze for the Refugee Paralympic Team at Paris 2024 and has now obtained French citizenship.

At the World Taekwondo Grand Prix, men’s competition will be held across the -58kg, -68kg, -80kg and +80kg weight categories, while women will compete in the -49kg, -57kg, -67kg and +67kg.

The 22 medallists who qualified at the Charlotte 2025 World Taekwondo Grand Prix Challenge will compete in Rome, underlining the opportunities provided by World Taekwondo’s competition pathway.

A star-studded entry list includes the male MVP at the Wuxi 2025 World Taekwondo Championships Eunsu Seo of Korea, and Brazil’s Maria Clara Pacheco who won two Grand Prix Challenge golds last year before being crowned world champion.

The female MVP at the Wuxi 2025 World Taekwondo Championships Luana Márton and her Olympic gold medal-winning sister Viviana Márton, both of Hungary, will also compete in Rome, along with Belgium’s Sarah Chaâri, the 2025 World Taekwondo Female Athlete of the Year and World Taekwondo Championships gold medallist.

Other world champions competing include Thailand’s Banlung Tubtimdang and the 2025 World Taekwondo Male Athlete of the Year Henrique Marques Rodrigues Fernandes of Brazil, while perennial medallists CJ Nickolas of USA, Caden Cunningham of Great Britain and Italy’s own Simone Alessio add to a strong field.

Alongside the competition, Roma 2026 will also feature the first-ever G1-ranked Virtual Taekwondo competition on June 4, featuring 19 athletes from five countries in a single-elimination tournament.

The competition also forms part of a wider celebration of Taekwondo in Italy. The World Taekwondo Performance Team will perform at Lake Como in the north of the country on May 31, before joining the Italian Taekwondo Demonstration Team “Ciao” at the Piazza di Spagna in Rome on June 3.

The Closing Ceremony on June 7 at the Ponte della Musica will bring together the World Taekwondo Performance Team and their Italian counterparts once more, an occasion which will also celebrate the 60^th anniversary of the Italian Taekwondo Federation (FITA).

With the world’s best athletes going head-to-head and history in the making, all eyes will be on Rome throughout the competition.

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