World Wushu Championships facts for kids

The World Wushu Championships (WWC) is a big international sports competition. It is organized by the International Wushu Federation (IWUF). This event features two main types of wushu: wushu taolu and sanda (also known as sanshou).

The championships happen every two years, which means "biennially." The first one was held in 1991. It is the most important event for the IWUF. The World Wushu Championships also include meetings for the IWUF and its committees. This competition helps athletes qualify for other major events like the Taolu World Cup and the Sanda World Cup.

Past Championships

Here is a list of the World Wushu Championships that have taken place. You can see where they were held and which countries won the most medals.

Year	Event No.	Location	Types of Events	Top Country	Second Country	Third Country
1991	1	Beijing, China	23	China	Japan	Soviet Union
1993	2	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	24	China	Russia	Hong Kong
1995	3	Baltimore, United States	24	China	Hong Kong	Russia
1997	4	Rome, Italy	25	China	Hong Kong	Russia
1999	5	Hong Kong	31	China	Hong Kong	Vietnam
2001	6	Yerevan, Armenia	41	China	Vietnam	South Korea
2003	7	Macau	39	China	Vietnam	Russia
2005	8	Hanoi, Vietnam	40	China	Vietnam	Malaysia
2007	9	Beijing, China	40	China	Macau	Vietnam
2009	10	Toronto, Canada	40	China	Iran	Hong Kong
2011	11	Ankara, Turkey	40	China	Iran	Hong Kong
2013	12	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	46	China	Iran	Malaysia
2015	13	Jakarta, Indonesia	50	China	Indonesia	Iran
2017	14	Kazan, Russia	44	China	Iran	Hong Kong
2019	15	Shanghai, China	44	China	Iran	Hong Kong
2023	16	Fort Worth, United States	36	China	Vietnam	Macau
2025	17	Brazil	TBD	Future event
2027	18	Philippines

History of the Championships

The idea for the World Wushu Championships started in 1985. The Chinese Wushu Association began hosting invitational championships. This was to help make wushu a standard sport around the world.

The IWUF was formed in 1990. Soon after, the first World Wushu Championships happened in Beijing in 1991. To make wushu more popular globally, the 3rd and 4th championships were held in the United States and Italy. These were the first big wushu events outside of Asia.

At the 6th WWC in 2001, athletes were tested for banned substances for the first time. The 9th WWC in 2007 was a qualifying event for the 2008 Beijing Wushu Tournament. Some championships, like the 9th, 12th, and 15th WWCs, also helped athletes qualify for Wushu at the World Games. The 16th WWC was moved from 2021 to 2023 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

New Events Added Over Time

The very first World Wushu Championships had several events. These included changquan, daoshu, jianshu, gunshu, qiangshu, nanquan, taijiquan, and men's sanda.

In 1993, the 2nd WWC started using special "compulsory routines" for taolu. Later, in 1999, more events were added: taijijian, nandao, and nangun. In 2001, both old and new compulsory routines were used.

In 2003, two new events were introduced: duilian (a paired routine) and women's sanda. By 2005, the rules changed, and compulsory routines were no longer used. In 2007, music was added to the taijiquan and taijijian events.

In 2013, new compulsory routines were approved. So, extra events for compulsory changquan, nanquan, and taijiquan were held in 2013 and 2015. The 2015 WWC also added traditional wushu events. These included men's xingyiquan and dadao, and women's baguazhang and shuangjian. Some of these traditional events, like shuangdao, appeared again in later championships. The 2019 WWC also had a special "creative group-set" event as a demonstration.

All-Time Medal Winners

This table shows the total medals won by different countries up to the 2019 World Wushu Championships.

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	China	227	12	2	241
2	Hong Kong	51	65	42	158
3	Iran	51	22	23	96
4	Russia	39	33	34	106
5	Vietnam	36	58	58	152
6	South Korea	23	41	49	113
7	Macau	22	36	32	90
8	Malaysia	22	33	44	99
9	Philippines	17	19	33	69
10	Indonesia	15	13	18	46
11	Japan	14	38	40	92
12	Chinese Taipei	8	20	22	50
13	Egypt	8	18	30	56
14	Myanmar	5	9	7	21
15	Singapore	4	11	16	31
16	Netherlands	4	3	7	14
17	India	3	9	16	28
18	Italy	3	8	18	29
19	Brazil	3	7	15	25
20	Turkmenistan	3	1	0	4
21	United States	2	16	28	46
22	Ukraine	2	11	15	28
23	Turkey	2	9	26	37
24	Romania	2	9	13	24
25	France	2	4	24	30
26	Kazakhstan	2	1	7	10
27	Soviet Union	2	0	0	2
28	Spain	1	7	6	14
29	Azerbaijan	1	7	4	12
30	Canada	1	3	15	19
31	Lebanon	1	2	10	13
32	Great Britain	1	2	9	12
33	Armenia	1	2	7	10
34	Tajikistan	1	1	1	3
35	Australia	1	0	2	3
36	Israel	1	0	1	2
37	Belarus	0	5	6	11
38	Sweden	0	4	10	14
39	Tunisia	0	2	5	7
40	Kyrgyzstan	0	2	2	4
41	Venezuela	0	2	1	3
42	Poland	0	1	4	5
	Uzbekistan	0	1	4	5
44	Mongolia	0	1	2	3
45	Bermuda	0	1	1	2
	Czech Republic	0	1	1	2
	Mexico	0	1	1	2
	Morocco	0	1	1	2
49	Argentina	0	1	0	1
50	Algeria	0	0	11	11
51	Germany	0	0	4	4
	Greece	0	0	4	4
	Switzerland	0	0	4	4
54	Jordan	0	0	3	3
	Yemen	0	0	3	3
56	Belgium	0	0	2	2
	Portugal	0	0	2	2
	South Africa	0	0	2	2
	Sri Lanka	0	0	2	2
	Thailand	0	0	2	2
61	Afghanistan	0	0	1	1
	Georgia	0	0	1	1
	New Zealand	0	0	1	1
	North Korea	0	0	1	1
	Peru	0	0	1	1
Totals (65 entries)		581	553	756	1,890

The total number of gold, silver, and bronze medals might not always add up perfectly. This is because:

• In 1993, sanda events started giving out two bronze medals instead of one.
• Sometimes, prizes were not given out, or multiple people shared a prize.
• In 1995, taolu events had several winners for each prize. Sanda events only gave a gold medal to the winner.
• Medals that were taken away (stripped) are also counted in the table.

Top Athletes

Some athletes have won many medals at the World Wushu Championships. Here are some of the best.

Taolu Gold Medalists

These athletes have won the most gold medals in taolu events.

Rank	Athlete	Country	First Year	Last Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total Medals
1	Nguyễn Thúy Hiền	Vietnam	1993	2003	7	6	2	15
2	Park Chan-dea	South Korea	1993	2001	6	7	2	15
3	Ng Siu Ching	Hong Kong /  Hong Kong	1991	2001	5	6	3	14
4	Geng Xiaoling	Hong Kong	2005	2015	5	6	1	12
5	Liu Xuxu	Hong Kong	2017	2019	5	3	1	9
6	Lindswell Kwok	Indonesia	2009	2017	5	2	2	9
7	Jia Rui	Macau	2005	2013	4	6	1	11
8	Đàm Thanh Xuân	Vietnam	1999	2005	4	3	-	7
9	He Jianxin	Hong Kong	2017		4	2	2	8
10	Li Fai	Hong Kong /  Hong Kong	1991	2001	4	2	3	9

Sanda Gold Medalists

These athletes have won the most gold medals in sanda events.

Rank	Athlete	Country	First Year	Last Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total Medals
1	Mohsen Mohammadseifi	Iran	2009	2019	5	1	-	6
	Muslim Salikhov	Russia	2005	2015	5	1	-	6
	Bozigit Ataev	Russia	1999	2013	5	1	-	6
4	Shahrbanoo Mansourian	Iran	2011	2019	5	-	-	5
5	Hamid Reza Gholipour	Iran	2007	2019	4	2	-	6
6	Mohammad Reza Jafari	Iran	1997	2005	4	-	1	5
7	Hossein Ojaghi	Iran	1997	2009	3	2	1	6
8	Elaheh Mansourian	Iran	2009	2017	3	1	1	5
9	Ramazan Ramazanov	Soviet Union /  Russia	1991	1995	3	-	-	3
	Kazbek Zhaparov	Soviet Union /  Russia	1991	1995	3	-	-	3

See also

In Spanish: Campeonato Mundial de Wushu para niños

• List of international wushu competitions
• World Junior Wushu Championships