World Taekwondo announced the 2021 world championships, scheduled to begin October 12 in Wuxi, China, have been canceled. The decision comes at the request of the local government which had concerns over potential COVID-19 infections. Current regulations would have either prohibited teams from foreign nations from entering China or forced them to quarantine for several weeks. No decision was announced on when the tournament might be rescheduled for.

World Taekwondo's general assembly was set to meet in person at the championships to hold its elections but that will now be done virtually. The Olympic schedule remains on track with a record 130 taekwondo athletes set to compete at this summer's Tokyo Games along with seeing the debut of taekwondo in the Paralympic Games.