(November 14, 2016) -- The 11^th WTF World Taekwondo Junior Championships are set to take place at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre in Burnaby, Canada, on November 16-20. The event will attract a total of 846 young athletes from 101 countries reflecting taekwondo’s growing global appeal. The opening and closing ceremonies of the Championships as well as the daily semi-finals and finals will be live streamed to taekwondo’s global audience through the WTF website and WTF YouTube Channel.

The five-day event will feature 10 weight divisions each for men and women. The U.S. is represented by a full 20-member squad.

The American women's team is comprised of finweight Kiana Chai Chong, flyweight Sydney Stoyanoff, bantamweight Leah Mitelberg, featherweight Chloe Towns, lightweight Logan Weber, welterweight Starla Santana, light middleweight Trinity Sullivan, middleweight Ceana Rodriguez, light heavyweight Camryn Henry and heavyweight Madelynn Gorman-Shore.

Sullivan and Gorman-Shore were both members of the 2014 World Junior Championship team.

Making up the U.S. men’s squad is finweight Bilal Hasan, flyweight CJ Nickolas, bantamweight Van Mitchel Bactista, featherweight Austin Tran, lightweight Derrick Kwak, Jr., welterweight Joshua Liu, light middleweight Connor Giddens, middleweight Joshua Wilson, light heavyweight Alasan Ann and heavyweight Luis Espinosa.

Team USA Staff
Head of Team: Keith Ferguson
Team Managers: Seth Wilson and Christina Bayley
Coaches: Sang Cha, Joseph Salim, Eui Lee and Nigel Chai Chong
Assistant Coach: Andreea Kovacs Lester
Trainers: Dennis Kim and Ed Givans
Team Medical Staff: William (Bill) Spivey and Phuong Hoang

World Junior Taekwondo Championships Schedule

Live-streaming for Day 1 ~ Day 5 [Semi-finals and Finals]
Watch on WTF website and WTF YouTube Channel.
Day 1 (Nov 16): Opening Ceremony: 17:00 ~ 19:00 (Vancouver Time) 
                          Semi-finals & Final: 19:00 ~ 21:00 
                          Awarding Ceremony: 21:00 ~ 22:00 
Day 2 (Nov 17): Semi-finals & Final: 17:00 ~ 20:00 
                          Awarding Ceremony: 19:00 ~ 20:00 
Day 3 (Nov 18): Semi-finals & Final: 17:00 ~ 20:00 
                          Awarding Ceremony: 19:00 ~ 20:00 
Day 4 (Nov 19): Semi-finals & Final: 17:00 ~ 20:00 
                          Awarding Ceremony: 19:00 ~ 20:00 
Day 5 (Nov 20): Semi-finals & Final: 17:00 ~ 19:00 
                          Awarding Ceremony: 19:00 ~ 20:00

HISTORY

The WTF World Junior Taekwondo Championships have been held every two years since the inaugural event was staged in 1996 in Barcelona, Spain, and USA Taekwondo has medaled at every one of the tournaments, winning a total of 39 medals.

As a team, USA Taekwondo has placed in the top-10 in eight of the 10 World Junior Championships, but has not reached the top five since 2008 when it won five collective medals. This year’s team will look to reverse the trend that saw the American squad slip to 15^th overall in 2014.

The World Junior Taekwondo Championships have also proved to be a launching pad for many successful international taekwondo careers. Five Olympians – including three Olympic medalists – began their storied careers by medaling at a World Junior Championships.

Before he became the only five-time Olympian and five-time world champion, Steven Lopez captured a gold medal at the first World Junior Championships in 1996. His sister, Diana Lopez, won gold medals at both the 1998 and 2000 events before going on to compete at two Olympic Games, including winning a bronze medal in 2008. Brother Mark Lopez was a 1998 bronze medalist at the World Junior Championships, setting the path to a silver medal at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Another member of the 2008 Olympic Team, Charlotte Craig, was a bronze medalist just two short years earlier at the 2006 World Junior Championships. And Stephen Lambdin, a member of this year’s Olympic Team that competed in Rio alongside Steven Lopez, earned a bronze medal at the 2004 Junior Worlds.

In addition to Diana Lopez, two other athletes have won multiple medals at the World Junior Championships. Cheyenne Lewis was junior world champion in 2010 and followed that up with a silver medal in 2012, while Giuliana Gil claimed back-to-back bronze medals at the same two events.

All in all, Team USA has earned nine gold medals, six silver medals and 24 bronze medals at the World Junior Championships. The best team showing came in 1998 with a total of eight medals (3 gold, 1 silver, 4 bronze) and a second place overall in the final team standings.