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A festival of 80 million Taekwondo practitioners around the world and a dream competition for global Taekwondo players, the `2017 World Taekwondo Championships Muju` will be held for seven days from June 24 to 30 at Muju Taekwondowon in Jeollabuk-do, the Mecca of Taekwondo. The World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) has been holding World Taekwondo Championships biennially since 1973. This competition is being held for the 23rd time in 2017. Korea has been selected as a host for this event a total of seven times. Following Seoul (1973, 1975, 1985 and 1989), Jeju (2001) and Gyeongju (2011), Muju is the host city for this year s World Taekwondo Championships. This year`s competition, especially, is held for the first time at Muju Taekwondowon, which was built in 2014 by the Korean government as an arena dedicated solely to Taekwondo with a goal to reinforce the status of Korea as a birthplace of Taekwondo. Held under the slogan, One World, One Taekwondo at Muju Taekwondowon, the 2017 WTF World Taekwondo Championships Muju will be of the largest scale in history as a single-event competition. In addition to the World Championships matches where male and female competitors in eight weight divisions compete for 16 gold medals, the World Taekwondo Federation General Assembly is set to elect the next president and other auxiliary events, such as the International Taekwondo Symposium. During the competition period, a Taekwondo Gyeokpa (Breaking) show, a performance by a Taekwondo demonstration team and a K-pop concert will be provided to create a festive atmosphere. Tae-ri and A-rang are the mascots for this competition. Tae-ri, a male tiger, signifies becoming one through Taekwondo. The letter T in Tae-ri is an initial for Taekwondo Tiger, Training and Together. It expresses the identity and values of the competition. A-rang, a female white tiger, symbolizes unique Korean sentiments. It incorporates the hope that, by vitalizing the spirit of Korean people, the 2017 WTF World Taekwondo Championships Muju will become a festival of global unity and co-existence. As for the emblem, it expresses a dynamic Taekwondo sparring movement using Korean brush techniques.