Thursday, February 28, 2008

Wushu Competitions

List of major international and regional competitions featuring wushu:

  • World Wushu Championships
  • World Junior Wushu Championships
  • Asian Games
  • National Games of the People's Republic of China
  • East Asian Games
  • Southeast Asian Games
  • European Wushu Championships, organised by the European Wushu Federation

Notable Practitioners

For Sanda competitors, see the article on Sanshou.
  • Jet Li (李連杰) - possibly the most famous wushu practitioner in the world. He started wushu as a competition sport and gained fame as he took the National Wushu Champion of China title five times as an original member of the Beijing Wushu Team, he was later selected to demonstrate his wushu on the silver screen in the worldwide hit film Shaolin Temple. Many of his old teammates have also appeared on-screen with him, especially in his older movies.
  • Wu Jing (吳京) - Chinese actor who was sent to the Beijing Sports Institute at Shichahai in Beijing when he was 6 years old. Like Jet Li he competed as a member of the Beijing Wushu Team in national level wushu competitions in China. Both his father and grandfather were also martial artists
  • Ray Park - Showcased his skills in wushu in several major films, including his portrayal of Darth Maul in 1999's Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, as well as Toad in the film X-Men (2000) and as stunt-double for Robin Shou and James Remar in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.
  • Voice actor Yuri Lowenthal is a practicioner of Wu Shu.

Wushu As An Olympic Event
The IWUF placed a bid to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to have wushu included in future Olympic Games, but so far did not meet with success. However, the IOC has allowed China to organize an international wushu event during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, but this event is not one of the 28 official Olympic sports, nor is it a demonstration event. Instead, it will be called the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games Wushu Tournament.

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