The 2008 Beijing Wushu Tournament (
Chinese: 北京2008武术比赛;
pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese fo ...
: ''Běijīng 2008 wǔshù bǐsài'') was a
wushu competition which was held from August 21 to 24, 2008 at the
Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium in
Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...
,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
. The tournament was organised by the
Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games
The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, or BOCOG, also known as the Beijing Organizing Committee, was an informal name for the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad. It was also the organizi ...
(BOCOG), the
International Wushu Federation (IWUF), and the
Chinese Wushu Association (CWA), and was held in tandem with the
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...
.
The competition consisted of ten
taolu events (5 male, 5 female), and five
sanshou
Sanda (), formerly Sanshou (), also known as Chinese boxing or Chinese kickboxing, is the official Chinese kickboxing full-contact combat sport. Sanda is a fighting system which was originally developed by the Chinese military based upon the ...
events (3 male, 2 female). The Chinese team dominated the competition with eight gold medals followed by Russia and Hong Kong which earned two gold medals each.
Background
Starting in the 1970s, the government of the People's Republic of China started to consider sport as a possible medium for friendly international exchange. One sport the PRC was very interested in developing was modern
wushu. In 1982, the
General Administration of Sport of China
The General Administration of Sport () is the government agency responsible for sports in mainland China. It is subordinate to the State Council of the People's Republic of China. It also administers the All-China Sports Federation and Chinese Oly ...
officially proclaimed that wushu practitioners had a duty 'to promote wushu to the world'
with the ultimate goal of wushu becoming an official event at the
Olympic Games
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a multi ...
.
The International Wushu Federation (IWUF) was founded
1990 Asian Games
)
, Nations participating = 36
, Athletes participating = 6,122
, Events = 308 in 27 sports
, Opening ceremony = 22 September 1990
, Closing ceremony = 7 October 1990
, Officially opened by = Yang Shangkun
, O ...
, and over a decade later, it was fully recognised by the
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swis ...
during the 113th IOC Congress at the
2002 Winter Olympics
The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 ( arp, Niico'ooowu' 2002; Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; nv, Sooléí 2002; Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), was an internationa ...
. This development along with
Beijing's successful bid in hosting the 2008 Olympics presented the opportunity for wushu to be included in the Games, but as
Jacques Rogge
Jacques Jean Marie Rogge, Count Rogge (, ; 2 May 1942 – 29 August 2021) was a Belgian sports administrator and physician who served as the eighth President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) from 2001 to 2013. In 2013, Rogge bec ...
became the new president of the IOC in 2002, he announced the IOC's plans to reduce the number of the events at the Games.
This led to the creation of the Olympic Programme Commission which called for changes and reevaluations within the Olympic programme. Despite this, the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG), the IWUF, and the Chinese Wushu Association (CWA) began to lobby extensively for the official inclusion of wushu. Athletes and organisations argued that the inclusion of the sport would help culturally diversify the Games
and hoped that wushu would follow the same Olympic path as
judo
is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponica, "Judo") ...
and
taekwondo
''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean martial arts, Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast k ...
.
In August 2002, the Olympic Programme Commission under Chairman
Franco Carraro recommended to the IOC executive board that wushu should not be admitted to the 2008 Summer Olympics, and reasoned that it was not a sport of global appeal and that it would add no substantial value to the Games.
Shortly after this meeting though, the IOC reversed their decision and stated that the sport of wushu was once again under consideration. In 2004, the Olympic Programme Commission introduced new evaluation criteria for Olympic sports to ensure the events would be fair and of high quality.
As a result, the IWUF switched to computerised scoring and the ''International Rules for Taolu Competition'' were significantly revised. Sanshou rules stayed relatively the same besides switching to computerised scoring.
In 2005, IOC President Rogge met with the IWUF President and IOC executive board member
Yu Zaiqing
Yu Zaiqing ( Simplified Chinese:, born 26 April 1951) is a Chinese sports administrator, a member of the executive board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) since 2000, and a vice-president from 2008 to 2012, and since February 2014.
H ...
at the
Chinese Grand Prix and announced that wushu will have no place in the Olympic Games in Beijing, not even as a demonstration sport. After meeting again a few weeks later at the
2005 National Games of China, all parties involved came to a compromise. Despite the IOC's rule that no international or national sports competition is allowed in the Olympic host city during or one week before or after the Games and also despite the ban on demonstration events since the
1992 Summer Olympics
The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...
, the IOC specifically permitted the IWUF to organise a wushu tournament alongside the Olympic Games due to wushu's place in traditional Chinese culture. This collaboration was reaffirmed during a meeting at the 2006 World Traditional Wushu Championships, though the IOC did not specify if wushu had demonstration sport status, but referred to it as a 'representation sport.'
Other than substituting the Olympic rings with the logo of the IWUF, all other elements (e.g. medal design, award presentation & ceremony, graphic elements and colours, volunteers of the tournament, etc.) were identical to the Olympics. Athletes were also allowed to stay in the athletes' village though were only allowed to arrive only a few days before the tournament. The official BOCOG website also included the schedule, results, and profiles of the athletes. Day two of the competition was broadcast on
China Central Television (CCTV) but other international channels provided live streaming for other days. The taolu and sanda events took place at the
Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium, which was the site for the
Handball competition at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Events
The Beijing Wushu Tournament borrowed the same combined-event format which was seen at wushu competitions such as the
Asian Games
The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation (AGF) from the first Games in New Delhi, India, until t ...
,
Southeast Asian Games
The Southeast Asian Games, also known as the SEA Games, is a biennial multi-sport event involving participants from the current 11 countries of Southeast Asia. The games are under the regulation of the Southeast Asian Games Federation with sup ...
, and the
National Games of China
The National Games of the People's Republic of China (), sometimes known as the All China Games (though not to be confused with the All-China Games), is the premier sports event in China at national level. It is usually held once every four yea ...
. The events contested were:
*
Changquan
Chángquán () refers to a family of external (as opposed to internal) martial arts (kung fu) styles from northern China.
The forms of the Long Fist style emphasize fully extended kicks and striking techniques, and by appearance would be cons ...
*
Daoshu and
Gunshu combined
*
Jianshu and
Qiangshu combined
*
Nanquan and
Nangun
The Nangun () is a variation of the application of the " northern Chinese staff", which is featured in contemporary wushu exercises and forms. It is based on staff techniques coming from Southern Chinese martial arts. Its movements stress hitti ...
combined
(men only)
*
Nanquan and
Nandao
Nandao is a kind of sword that is used mostly in contemporary Chinese wushu exercises and forms. It is the southern variation of the "northern broadsword", or Beidao. Its blade bears some resemblance to the butterfly sword, also a southern Chi ...
combined
(women only)
*
Taijiquan
Tai chi (), short for Tai chi ch'üan ( zh, s=太极拳, t=太極拳, first=t, p=Tàijíquán, labels=no), sometimes called " shadowboxing", is an internal Chinese martial art practiced for defense training, health benefits and meditation. ...
and
Taijijian
Taijijian () is a straight two-edged sword used in the training of the Chinese martial art Taijiquan. The straight sword, sometimes with a tassel and sometimes not, is used for upper body conditioning and martial training in traditional Taijiquan ...
combined
* Men's
Sanshou
Sanda (), formerly Sanshou (), also known as Chinese boxing or Chinese kickboxing, is the official Chinese kickboxing full-contact combat sport. Sanda is a fighting system which was originally developed by the Chinese military based upon the ...
: 56, 70, 85 kg
* Women's Sanshou: 52, 60 kg
Schedule
Qualification
128 athletes from 43 countries took part in the Beijing Wushu Tournament. National federations were not allowed to send more than eight taolu and sanshou athletes to the competition. Since China was the hosting nation, any of its athletes which competed at the 2007 world championships would qualify. Unlike the IOC, the IWUF recognises the
Macau Olympic Committee and athletes representing Macau were allowed to compete in the competition.
Taolu
Besides the typical awarding of medals per each taolu event at the 2007 world championships, all athletes were ranked based on their combined scores from the proposed events at the Beijing Wushu Tournament (ie. daoshu and gunshu; jianshu and qiangshu; etc.).
All athletes which ranked within the top six of a combined category or changquan (as ranking was done based only on the singular event) qualified for the Beijing Wushu Tournament.
The IWUF then distributed 20 wild cards to various national federations to send more athletes. A national federation could enter only one athlete per each event and all athletes could compete in only one event.
As Chinese athletes at the 2007 world championships would automatically qualify for the Beijing Wushu Tournament, all of them opted not to participate in their second events after winning gold medals in their first events.
Sanshou
All sanshou athletes who placed in the top eight in the selected events for this competition (men's 56 kg, 70 kg or 80 kg; women's 52 kg or 60 kg) at the 2007 world championships qualified for the tournament. Vacancies due to illness, injury, or nonavailability were not filled, hence the unusual distribution of participants and rounds.
Medal summary
Since the Beijing Wushu Tournament was not officially connected to the Olympic Games, medals earned were not added to the official Olympics medal tally.
Medal table
Medalists
Men's taolu
Men's sanshou
Women's taolu
Women's sanshou
Participating Nations
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
(7)
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
See also
*
2007 World Wushu Championships - hosted in Beijing
*
2014 Nanjing Youth Wushu Tournament
References
External links
Official Website - WushuIWUF - Results
{{Wushu
Wushu (sport)
2008 Summer Olympics
2008 in Chinese sport
2008 in wushu (sport)
Wushu competitions in China
Wushu competitions
2008 Beijing Wushu Tournament
Olympic demonstration sports