Taekwondo events will be held from Thursday, Aug. 29 to Saturday, Aug. 31 at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games.

There are 10 weight classes, five each for men and women. Paris marks only the second time the Korean form of martial arts has made an appearance at a Paralympic Games. It is also just the second combat sport to be included in the Paralympic program.

All Paralympians will compete in the K44 classification which includes athletes with a disability in one or both upper limbs.

Para Taekwondo medals will be fought for inside Paris’ iconic Grand Palais, which sits adjacent to other monuments of the city such as the magnificent Pont Alexandre III bridge and the wide swaths of greenery at the Esplanade des Invalides.

Team USA’s Evan Medell is looking to be back on the podium at the Paris Paralympics at age 27. At para taekwondo’s debut in Tokyo, he fought for his bronze medal with a fractured foot. In 2023, he qualified for the Games by winning gold in the higher weight class of 80+kg at the Parapan American Games. Medell is from Michigan, works as a welder at a factory, and has brachial plexus palsy, a condition that affects the arm.

"I want to thank my father Greg Medell, who believed in me even before I started Taekwondo, teaching me to expect excellence from myself and to never let myself think I was less than capable compared to anyone else, taught me to find a way not an excuse and to embrace work as a friend not an enemy, to not be ashamed of being different but instead be proud to stand out, and last but not least, how to conduct myself as a man, human being and competitor," Medell wrote in part on Instagram after winning bronze in Tokyo.