Announcements
Notice of Removal of Team Freestyle Poomsae Division at 2026 FISU America Games
1 month
Dear NCTA Athletes and Coaches:
The NCTA received the following notice from the local organizing committee of the 2026 FISU America Games:
“It has been decided that the Team Freestyle Poomsae division will not be included in the championship. In other words, the team modality will be withdrawn from the competition for FAG Lima 2026.
“The main reason Team Freestyle Poomsae will not be included is due to recent modifications to the international regulations governing this discipline. As a result of these changes, we currently do not have judges who are properly certified under the new standards.
“Providing the required training and ensuring certification would take additional time. Given how soon the championship will take place, the Taekwondo Coordinator for FAG Lima 2026 has advised that it would not be feasible for the current judges to complete the necessary training and meet the updated qualification standards in time.
“An alternative would be to hire certified judges from Europe or Asia; however, this option unfortunately falls outside the event’s allocated budget.”
NCTA and UniUSA are appealing this decision and requesting that the tournament be run with prior versions of the international rules before the recent modifications (board breaking in particular). However, in the meantime, we recommend not registering for this event at this time. If the event is reinstated, we will open registration for this event again. Any current registrations for this event will be refunded.
We know that this is frustrating for athletes, coaches and family, but we are doing all we can to give you all the opportunity to compete and will keep athletes and coaches up to date in a timely manner.
Best regards,
Dan Chuang
NCTA President
UPDATE – March 26, 2026
Unfortunately, the organizing committee of the Games has confirmed the decision not to include freestyle team in the Games despite the appeal of the USA Delegation. Their response is below:
“Thank you for your message and for following up on this matter. We truly appreciate the interest and commitment of your federation and athletes regarding the Freestyle Poomsae discipline.
“After careful consideration, we regret to inform you that the Team Freestyle Poomsae category will not be included in this sporting event.
“We understand the importance of this modality for your team selection process and sincerely appreciate your understanding in this regard.”
2026 NCTA National Collegiate and High School Championships to be held in Chapel Hill, NC on April 24-26
3 months
NCTA is pleased to announce that the 2026 National Collegiate and High School Taekwondo Championships will be held on Friday, April 24 through Sunday, April 26 at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill at Woollen Gymnasium, hosted by the Carolina Taekwondo Club. This event is planned to be a 10.0 USATKD sanctioned event for the collegiate championship divisions, with those collegiate championship divisions also serving as a qualifier for the USATKD National Championships analogous to the USATKD State Championships.
The tournament will begin with all collegiate and high school poomsae, breaking and demo team competition on Friday, all collegiate and high school championship individual sparring on Saturday, and the 3 v. 3 format NCTA Cup event on Sunday. As in past years, collegiate taekwondo clubs will vie for the chance to become national champions in the Overall (Brown & UT Austin defending champions), Black Belt (MIT & UC Davis defending champions) and Color belt (UT Austin defending champions) divisions. Those participating on Sunday will be competing to win the newly minted traveling NCTA Cup (Northeastern University defending champions).
Said NCTA President Dan Chuang, “NCTA has been consistently setting records for attendance each year for the past several years at our national events, and I expect these championships to be no different. In particular, NCTA now sanctions well over 10 collegiate tournaments per year, so we expect that momentum to carry through to our national championships. I can’t wait to see all of the athletes competing with pride representing their colleges.”
As announced earlier, the 2026 NCTA Team Trials for the FISU America Games will be a separate event held on April 3 in conjunction with the CUTA California State Championships, and should not be confused with the 2026 National Collegiate and High School Championships.
Information will be posted as it becomes available on the NCTA Championships page.
2026 NCTA Team Trials to be held in Fresno, CA on Friday, April 3
3 months
NCTA is pleased to announce that the team trials to represent USA at the 2026 FISU America Games (collegiate Pan American multi-sport Games) will be held on Friday, April 3 in Fresno, CA at the Fresno Convention Center. The 2026 FISU America Games will be held July 20 to August 1, 2026 in Lima, Peru, with taekwondo events taking place July 23-26 (the taekwondo team for USA would likely arrive one to two days earlier and depart on July 27).
The event will be held in conjunction with the California Unified Taekwondo Association (CUTA) state championships. but will have its own separate registration. Said NCTA President Dan Chuang, “The NCTA is grateful to President Yong Choi and CUTA for their gracious support of the collegiate athletes. I am so excited to see these amazing collegiate student athletes vie for the opportunity to represent USA at these unique continental multi-sport Games.”
The divisions being contested at the trials will be:
1) Individual Kyorugi (sparring) (eight male and eight female senior weight classes)
2) Individual Recognized Poomsae (separate male and female)
3) Individual Freestyle Poomsae (separate male and female)
4) Mixed Pair Freestyle Poomsae (one male and one female)
5) Mixed Team Freestyle Poomsae (five athletes, at least two males and at least two females)
The FISU America Games will allow more than one player in each individual discipline to enter. Therefore, NCTA will select two athletes for each individual division to represent the USA.
More information, including selection procedures, will be available soon on the 2026 Team Trials page.
Coaching Application for 2025 Summer World University Games
1 year
The NCTA is now accepting applications for coaches for the 2025 Summer World University Games from July 14-24, 2024 in Rhine-Ruhr, Germany. Applications can be submitted at this form and are due by Friday, April 25 Monday, April 28.
Details of the trip are in the application.
NCTA 2025 Collegiate and High School Championships To Be Held on April 11-13 in Marlborough, MA
1 year
The NCTA is pleased to announce that the 2025 National Collegiate Taekwondo Championships and the 2025 NCTA National High School Championships will take place on Apr. 11-13, 2025 in Marlborough, MA at the Royal Plaza Trade Center. The Championships will also host the poomsae team trials on April 11 for the 2025 Summer World University Games to be held in Rhine-Ruhr, Germany on July 16-27. The sparring team trials for the Summer World University Games will be held in Texas on March 16. Acting as the host school will be Northeastern University’s Taekwondo Club.
Check the NCTA Championships website for a day-by-day event schedule, and for more information as it becomes available.
