ATHLETE Assistance Program (AAP)
2026-2027 Taekwondo AAP Carding Criteria
2025-2026 Taekwondo AAP Carding Criteria
Sport Canada’s Athlete Assistance Program (AAP) provides financial assistance to Canadian high-performance athletes to improve Canadian performances at major international sporting events. Taekwondo Canada has established criteria to guide the process of nominating athletes for this support.
Notice of Re-Publication: Athlete Assistance Program (AAP) Carding Criteria for 2025-2026 Nominations
With the release of World Taekwondo’s new Ranking Bylaw and new ranking system/qualification for the LA 2028 Olympics, Taekwondo Canada will follow Article 10 of the Athlete Assistance Program (AAP) Carding Criteria for 2025-2026 Nominations that states:
“Further, situations may arise that do not allow the AAP criteria document to be modified or applied as written due to time constraints or other exceptional or unforeseen circumstances. In such situations, any decision, including athlete nomination for AAP Carding support, will be made by Taekwondo Canada’s High Performance Director, in accordance with the performance objectives and nomination principles as stated herein. Should it be necessary to make any decision in this manner, Taekwondo Canada will communicate with all affected individuals as soon as possible.”
In order to maintain the performance objectives and nomination principles as originally approved and published by Sport Canada for the 2025-2026 Carding cycle, Taekwondo Canada has sought and received new approval for updated criteria that will replace the previously published version. While the new Ranking Bylaws do not impact athlete eligibility under Articles 5.1 and 6.1.a that require a performance standard at a specific event (these remain unchanged in the updated Criteria), they do impact the validity of utilizing WT Olympic Ranking as published on January 7th, 2025, for Articles 5.2 and 6.1.b. As such, updated criteria have been published that set objective performance benchmarks in order to maintain an athlete eligibility and nomination process that is consistent with the principles of the original criteria.
Taekwondo Canada will maintain a publicly available WT Olympic Point Tracking spreadsheet that utilizes the May 2024 WT Olympic Division point totals as the baseline for determining the Projected WT Olympic Ranked Top Twenty-Five (25) and Top Fifty (50) in accordance with Articles 5.2.b and 6.2.b in the updated Carding Criteria for 2025-2026 Nominations. All Canadian athletes ranked in the top two-hundred (200) in a WT Olympic Weight Class as of the May 2024 ranking period will be included in the tracking spreadsheet where point depreciations over the remaining 2024 calendar year will be calculated as per the 2023 Ranking Bylaw and associated update notices shared by WT. Points earned at events from May 2024 through to the end of December 2024 will be attributed to the respective athlete as per the same ranking bylaw.
All other aspects of the AAP Carding Criteria for 2025-2026 Nominations remain unchanged including the Carding Requirements, Approval of Sport Canada AAP Cards, Exceptional Circumstances, and Appeals Process.
2024-2025 Taekwondo AAP Carding Criteria
2024-2025 Taekwondo Athlete Assistance Program (AAP) – Carded List
The Athlete Assistance Program (AAP) is a sport funding program that contributes to the pursuit of excellence through its contribution to improved Canadian athlete performances at major international sporting events. This program enables athletes to combine their sport and academic or working careers while training intensively in pursuit of world-class performances.
Athletes who are approved for funding and are financially supported through the AAP are referred to as Carded Athletes. As stated in the Sport Canada AAP Policies and Procedures, “National Sport Organizations (NSO) may nominate Eligible Athletes for senior or development cards according to their published NSO approved AAP compliant carding criteria up to the maximum of the monetary value of the senior card quota”. Taekwondo Canada has received a quota of five cards for 2024-2025. Our quota for 2025-2026 will remain the same. However, Sport Canada regularly reviews its Carding allocations, therefore, this amount is subject to change.
Review of nominated athletes and final approval of the athletes are validated by Sport Canada and are in accordance with Sport Canada AAP Policies and Procedures.
Sport Canada and Taekwondo Canada list of approved athletes for AAP funding:
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- Ashley Kraayeveld – SR
- Skylar Park – SR
- Sarangi Brindamohan – D
- Ella Brewster – D
- Nicholas Hoefling – D
- Braven Park – D
- Tae-Ku Park – D
