Update on 2020 AAU Taekwondo Nationals

04/28/2020


2020 AAU Taekwondo Nationals will take place October 7th - 11th, at the ESPN’s Wide World of Sports Complex in The Arena located at the Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

First, I hope that you and your family are all staying healthy and that you are able to continue to find ways to train and stay connected to your home dojang.

The past six weeks have been full of trying times and uncertainty.  Not only for us as individuals, but particularly for the small business owners who make up the fabric of our taekwondo community.  To this end, I must announce that nationals (which was supposed to take place July 5th -11th  in Las Vegas) must be postponed. 
 
However, a 16th century poet once said, “I am too positive to be doubtful, too optimistic to be fearful, and too determined to be defeated.”

So, while this news is without question, disappointing to everyone in the AAU Taekwondo family, I am also proud to announce that we have secured new dates and a location for this year. 

2020 AAU Taekwondo Nationals will take place October 7th - 11th, at the ESPN’s Wide World of Sports Complex in The Arena located at the Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.  Through our partnership with AAU National Headquarters, our committee has been able to secure this wonderful holiday weekend!  We will hold our nationals in conjunction with the 2020 AAU Karate National Championships.  This promises to be an event like no other - as we will not only host our nationals, but we will also host our team trials as well.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank our national executive committee, our national coaching staff, and the staff at AAU headquarters who have worked tirelessly to make this happen so quickly.  I wouldn’t have been able to do it without them!  Additionally, I would like to thank the staff at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports Complex who have also done everything in their power to make sure that this event could take place on the holiday weekend when many of our athletes and parents will have additional time off.

Nationals registration and event schedule/information will be posted in the next few days.  I hope that this news comes to you and gives you hope that, not only will our lives get back to normal sooner as opposed to later, but we will win this war on our country.

In closing, I’ll leave you with a quote from one of my favorite leaders of all time, Winston Churchill: “You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.”  We will be victorious over this virus and we will all be stronger for it. 

I look forward to seeing you all at Nationals!  Until then, keep safe and healthy and train hard!

Sincerely, 

GM Stone