Wushu's first Olympic appearance was at the
1936 Summer Olympics as an unofficial exhibition event. 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 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 International Wushu Federation (IWUF) was founded
1990 Asian Games, and over a decade later, it was fully recognised by the
International Olympic Committee during the 113th IOC Congress at the
2002 Winter Olympics. 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 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 and
taekwondo. 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. In 2004, the Olympic Programme Commission introduced new evaluation criteria for Olympic sports to ensure the events would be fair and of high quality. 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 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 ==