Record 391 athletes in Taiyuan: Women's Open enters its biggest edition yet
Taiyuan will be the center of world women's taekwondo from August 28 to 30, 2026, and the third edition of the World Taekwondo Women's Open Championships has already set a record before the first athlete steps onto the competition area. According to data published by World Taekwondo, 391 athletes from 58 countries have entered the competition, along with the World Taekwondo Refugee Team. This means that the tournament in the capital of China's Shanxi province will have more than twice as many participants as the previous edition in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, in 2025, when 188 athletes competed. The difference is 203 competitors, or approximately 108 percent more than a year earlier, clearly showing how much the Women's Open has grown in just one edition. The competition will be held in eight women's weight categories, and the entry list includes Olympic champions, reigning world champions and medalists from World Taekwondo's biggest tournaments.
Three days of competition in eight weight categories
According to the published schedule, the competition in Taiyuan will be held at the Shanxi Sports Center and will be dedicated to kyorugi, taekwondo's combat discipline. The program begins on Friday, August 28, when the under 46 kilograms, under 62 kilograms and over 73 kilograms categories are scheduled. On Saturday, August 29, the under 49, under 53 and under 73 kilograms categories are on the program, while on the final day, August 30, medals will be decided in the under 57 and under 67 kilograms categories. The tournament's organizational information classifies it as a G-4 event, a designation used in the World Taekwondo competition system. That status, together with an exceptionally strong entry list, further increases the importance of competing in the final part of the 2026 international season.
The eight categories correspond to the standard structure of senior women's categories at World Taekwondo World Championships: -46 kg, -49 kg, -53 kg, -57 kg, -62 kg, -67 kg, -73 kg and +73 kg. This is a broader range than the Olympic program, in which women's taekwondo is divided into four weight categories, so the Women's Open provides room for more direct comparisons within the weights used at world level. That is precisely why athletes who compete in the same category at the Olympic Games can meet in Taiyuan even though they are placed in different world weight categories during the rest of the season. Such a structure often changes the balance of power and creates the possibility of matchups that do not regularly appear in the Olympic format. In a competition with almost 400 registered athletes, this could produce exceptionally deep draws from the early rounds onward.
Viviana Márton leads the list of Olympic champions
One of the biggest names on the entry list is Hungary's Viviana Márton, the Olympic champion from Paris 2024 in the under 67 kilograms category. World Taekwondo's official results database confirms that Márton defeated Serbia's Aleksandra Perišić in the Olympic final, and in 2026 she continued to achieve major results. At the Grand Prix in Rome, she won gold in the under 67 kilograms category, again defeating Perišić in the final. She arrives in Taiyuan as one of the athletes against whom the competition will be measured, but her presence is not the only major story of the Hungarian team. Her sister Luana Márton is also on the list, the reigning world champion under 67 kilograms after winning gold at the 2025 World Championships in Wuxi.
The Márton sisters arrive in Taiyuan with different but equally strong credentials. Viviana has Olympic gold and proven Grand Prix-level form, while Luana holds the status of world champion in one of the most competitive women's categories. In its official results from Wuxi, World Taekwondo recorded Luana's gold under 67 kilograms, ahead of Brazil's Milena Titoneli, while Viviana won silver in the under 62 kilograms category at the same championship. That fact further illustrates how much the top level of women's taekwondo can overlap between neighboring weight categories. If both compete in Taiyuan as entered, the Hungarian squad will have two current holders of the sport's biggest individual titles.
Yujin Kim and Sarah Chaâri bring Olympic and world championship experience
South Korea's Yujin Kim, the Olympic champion from Paris 2024 in the under 57 kilograms category, is also among those entered. Official World Taekwondo data lists her among the four women's Olympic champions from Paris, and her results after the Games confirm her continued place among the world's elite. At the 2025 World Championships in Wuxi, she won the silver medal under 57 kilograms behind Brazil's Maria Clara Pacheco, and at the 2026 Grand Prix in Rome she was again the silver medalist in the same category. Such a run means she comes to Taiyuan not only as an Olympic titleholder, but also as an athlete who has regularly reached the final stages of the biggest competitions over the past two seasons. In a field with a large number of registered athletes, her experience in medal fights could be an important advantage.
Belgium's Sarah Chaâri is another name that gives the entry list world championship-level weight. Chaâri won bronze under 67 kilograms at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, and a year later in Wuxi she became world champion under 73 kilograms. In the final of the 2025 World Championships, she defeated Kimi Laurene Ossin of Côte d'Ivoire, confirming her ability to successfully transition between different weight frameworks. Specialized taekwondo media that published the entry list for Taiyuan name her among the main stars of this year's Women's Open. Her combination of an Olympic medal and a current world title makes her one of the most recognizable athletes in the entire tournament.
World champions from Wuxi further raise the level of the tournament
The list does not end with Olympic champions. According to World Taekwondo results from the 2025 World Championships in Wuxi, numerous reigning world champions from different weight categories are also entered for Taiyuan. Tunisia's Wafa Masghouni won world gold under 62 kilograms ahead of Viviana Márton, while Türkiye's Nafia Kuş Aydın became champion in the over 73 kilograms category. Another Turkish representative, Emine Göğebakan, won the under 46 kilograms title. When Luana Márton and Sarah Chaâri are added to those names, it is clear that a significant share of the current world champions from Wuxi will be gathered in China.
Türkiye's strong entry stands out in particular because, alongside Nafia Kuş Aydın and Emine Göğebakan, it also includes Sude Yaren Uzuncavdar, the world bronze medalist under 73 kilograms in Wuxi. In 2026, Uzuncavdar also won bronze at the Grand Prix in Rome in the Olympic over 67 kilograms category, so she comes to Taiyuan with a continuity of results at the highest level. Such squad depth shows that the fight for medals will not come down to only a few individual favorites. In a tournament system with a large number of competitors, the value of national-team depth increases because major medalists can meet as early as the opening stages. This is one of the reasons why the record number of participants has qualitative, not merely statistical, significance.
Ossin and Angelova arrive after Grand Prix golds in Rome
The current form of some of the entrants can also be followed through the results of the first major Grand Prix of the 2026 season in Rome. Kimi Laurene Ossin of Côte d'Ivoire won gold there in the Olympic over 67 kilograms category, defeating China's Wenzhe Mu in the final. Only a few months earlier, Ossin had taken silver at the World Championships in Wuxi under 73 kilograms, where Sarah Chaâri stopped her in the final. That sequence of results places her among the most serious contenders to reach the closing stages in Taiyuan. Her presence also gives the tournament additional geographical breadth, as the top of women's taekwondo is now increasingly clearly distributed among athletes from Europe, Asia, Africa and both Americas.
At the same Grand Prix in Rome, Alisa Angelova won gold under 49 kilograms ahead of Egypt's Jana Khattab, while Morocco's Amina Dehhaoui took bronze under 57 kilograms. Milana Bekulova, silver medalist under 46 kilograms at the World Championships in Wuxi, is also listed among the entrants for Taiyuan, together with a number of other athletes who have won medals in the current cycle. This concentration of recent medalists is important because it shows that the Women's Open does not bring together only established names based on earlier reputation. A large share of the registered medal contenders has a result from 2025 or 2026 confirming their current competitiveness. For that reason, Taiyuan could also become an important indicator of the balance of power ahead of the continuation of the Grand Prix season.
From 188 athletes in Malabo to a record 391 in China
The growth in participant numbers is one of the central stories of the third edition of the Women's Open. The previous tournament was held in Malabo from November 14 to 16, 2025, and according to data reported by World Taekwondo and specialized taekwondo media, it brought together 188 athletes. Less than a year later, Taiyuan will have 391 registered competitors, meaning the number is higher by 203. In relative terms, this represents growth of approximately 108 percent, so the phrase "more than double" in this case is not a promotional estimate but a direct result of comparing officially published figures. Alongside 58 countries, the World Taekwondo Refugee Team has also been entered separately, giving the competition an additional international dimension.
The Women's Open has a short but unusually dynamic history. The first edition was held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2022, the second in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, in 2025, and Taiyuan is the third host. In May 2025, World Taekwondo officially awarded the organization of the 2026 edition to Taiyuan as part of a broader Federation Council decision on hosts of major competitions through 2027. Within World Taekwondo's organizational structure, the Women's Open is listed among the federation's special, or "signature," events, separately from the traditional World Championships and Grand Prix series. The record entry in Taiyuan therefore represents an important step in building the identity of a competition conceived as a separate international stage for women's taekwondo.
Taiyuan already has experience with taekwondo's biggest stage
The selection of Taiyuan as host is not the city's first encounter with elite international taekwondo. The city in Shanxi province hosted the World Taekwondo Grand Prix in 2023, so local organizers already have experience with a competition bringing together leading athletes and national teams. The Shanxi Sports Center is scheduled to host the 2026 Women's Open, with the published schedule distributing the eight categories across three competition days. Specialized outlet MASTKD also reports that the opening ceremony will include a performance by the World Taekwondo Demonstration Team. In addition to the sporting component, the organizers are therefore planning a presentation program linked to the global promotion of taekwondo.
The hosting comes at a time when China once again has a prominent role in World Taekwondo's major-event calendar. Wuxi hosted the World Championships in 2025, while Chinese athletes are regularly among the medalists at world championships and Grand Prix tournaments. In Taiyuan, the home team will therefore have both a sporting and organizational interest in ensuring that the record-breaking edition ends at a high level. At the same time, the large number of foreign national teams means the tournament cannot be viewed solely through a domestic context. With 58 countries and the World Taekwondo refugee team, this is a competition with global reach, featuring bouts that could provide a snapshot of the current strength of women's taekwondo across several continents.
Women's Open becomes an important point in the 2026 season
The late-August date places Taiyuan immediately before the continuation of the strongest part of the international season. World Taekwondo's official calendar schedules a Grand Prix in Muju in early September, meaning some athletes will compete again at a top-level event very soon after the Women's Open. The results in Taiyuan will therefore be interesting not only as a fight for medals at a separate championship, but also as a test of form during a period of a congested schedule. Particular attention will be paid to athletes who have already won medals in Rome in 2026, as well as the reigning world champions from Wuxi. In such a context, recovery, weight management and adaptation between world and Olympic categories may be just as important as the reputation of the seeded athletes itself.
At the same time, the Women's Open maintains its own identity because it offers all eight senior women's categories rather than only the four Olympic ones. This allows a broader group of elite athletes to compete at weights that better suit their usual competitive configuration. For national teams, it is an opportunity to compare several candidates within the same part of the weight range, while for athletes it represents a chance to achieve a major international result outside the traditional World Championships. In the years between Olympic Games, such competitions can be important for continuity, visibility and building competitive rhythm. The record turnout in Taiyuan shows that national-team interest in such a format has increased significantly.
The record has already been set, and the sporting answer arrives from August 28
Three days before the start of the competition, on August 25, 2026, one fact is already confirmed: the edition in Taiyuan will be the largest World Taekwondo Women's Open Championships by number of registered athletes. Whether record quantity will also produce the strongest sporting edition in the competition's short history will be shown by the bouts from August 28 to 30. The entry list provides enough reasons for high expectations, from Olympic champions Viviana Márton and Yujin Kim to reigning world champions Sarah Chaâri, Luana Márton, Wafa Masghouni, Nafia Kuş Aydın and Emine Göğebakan. Alongside them are medalists from Grand Prix events and world championships, as well as a large number of athletes who will seek a breakthrough toward the very top in Taiyuan. After the jump from 188 to 391 participants, the third edition of the Women's Open thus enters a new dimension both in scale and in the quality of competition.
Sources:
- World Taekwondo – official competition calendar and database, including the Taiyuan 2026 date and results from previous events (link)
- World Taekwondo – Federation Council decision awarding the hosting rights for the 2026 Women's Open to Taiyuan (link)
- World Taekwondo Results – official medalists at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (link)
- World Taekwondo Results – official medalists at the Wuxi 2025 World Championships (link)
- World Taekwondo Results – official medalists at the Rome 2026 Grand Prix (link)
- MASTKD – entry list, record 391 athletes, 58 countries, leading names and information about the opening ceremony (link)
- Taekwondo.TV – venue, G-4 status and schedule of categories by competition day (link)