Power ranking every single sport at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics

19. Judo/Taekwondo

We were all kids in some kind of discipline of martial arts, right? We might have stayed until we got a few stripes on our white belt, but that is about it. We did not get into the depths of martial arts like some people do, but these Olympians took it even further than that. These are those legends you hear about who could silently take out a biker gang. And truthfully, that kind of skill is amazing.

Unfortunately, the most popular martial arts in the U.S., karate, has been removed from the Olympics. They will not be competing at the Paris Olympics, and there’s no real clarity of when or if it will ever get back. So for now, we are looking at judo and taekwondo. Since the general public likely doesn’t know the difference, no matter how obvious, we put them together in one category.

There are so many gold medals in these events. There are 15 medal tables in judo alone. If a country takes over one of these martial arts, they can really pump the gold medal count.

The scoring in judo is a little funky, as many fair-weather fans think these sports will be scored like wrestling, and that’s not the case. The goal is to reach for an “ippon,” which is basically a locked-in pin (for longer than 20 seconds). If ippon can’t be established, then one must achieve two waza-aris (a pin for 10 or more seconds). Meanwhile, taekwondo rewards points for types of kicks and punches and location. Those scoring systems aren’t complicated, but it does take some learning for fans who are also trying to remember the rules for 40 other sports.