Collegiate Wushu Tournament

The Collegiate Wushu Tournament, previously known as the Intercollegiate Wushu Championships, is a collegiate wushu taolu competition. The tournament was founded in 1997 and is the highest level at which wushu taolu takes place at the post-secondary level in the United States. The Collegiate Wushu Tournament is also the first wushu competition in the United States to include groupset and team all-around championships modeled after competitions in China including the national games.

Eligible competitors must either be enrolled (either full or part-time), on a brief leave of absence, or have recently graduated from an institution based in North America. Medalists of the Collegiate Wushu Tournament have included US Wushu Team members Alfred Hsing, Colvin Wang, Brian Wang, Phillip Chen, and others. Phillip Dang and Stephanie Lim hold the most individual all-around titles in men's and women's events respectively, while UC Berkeley (Cal Wushu) holds the most team titles.

Results of this competition are not affiliated with the selection process for wushu at the Summer Universiade.

Editions EditionYearHost VenueRef1 1997 University of OregonWoodruff Gym2 1998 UC Berkeley Recreational Sports Facility31999 UC Irvine Anteater Recreation Center 42000 Stanford UniversityBurnham Pavilion5 2001 CSU-FullertonTitan Student Union6 2002 University of OregonWoodruff Gym7 2003 UC Berkeley Recreational Sports Facility82004 Stanford UniversityBurnham Pavilion92005 UC DavisHickey Gymnasium102006University of OregonWoodruff Gym112007UMD, College ParkXfinity Center122008Stanford UniversityBurnham Pavilion132009Georgia TechCampus Recreation Center142010University of OregonWoodruff Gym152011UCLAStudent Activities Center162012University of VirginiaMemorial Gymnasium172013UC San DiegoMain Gym182014UMD, College ParkXfinity Center192015UC IrvineAnteater Recreation Center202016Columbia UniversityAlfred Lerner Hall212017University of WashingtonActivities and Recreation Center 222018University of PittsburghFitzgerald Field House232019UC IrvineAnteater Recreation Center242023UC BerkeleyYerba Buena High School252024UCLAJohn Wooden Center262025UMD, College ParkRitchie Coliseum272026UC DavisUniversity Credit Union Center

History

Origins In the 1970s, modern wushu practitioners began to emigrate from China into the United States and began opening teaching studios. One such person was Anthony Chan who curated wushu in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1981, Chan founded Cal Wushu as the wushu team of UC Berkeley, but the team dissolved around 1983 when he moved to Los Angeles. Another individual of this first wave of modern wushu emigrants was Roger Tung who was pivotal in developing wushu in Seattle then in Los Angeles. In 1986, he co-founded the UCLA Wushu Team with student Tom Hagan. A year later, Cal Wushu was reestablished by Bryant Fong. In 1992, the team began hosting the Chinese Martial Arts Tournament (CMAT) which became the first martial arts competition in the United States exclusively for Chinese martial arts. The third collegiate wushu team to be created was the University of Oregon Wushu Team by future movie star Daniel Wu in 1994.

In 1996, members of Cal Wushu, UCLA Wushu, and UO Wushu met at CMAT. Despite the growing competition circuit being established by the United States of America Wushu Kungfu Federation, the collegiate students wanted to create a competition exclusively for college wushu teams. On February 9, 1997, the Oregon All-Collegiate Wushu Invitational was held at the University of Oregon as the first "wushu collegiates." The competition was organized by future US Wushu Team member Brandon Sugiyama who became known as the "father of collegiates."

Competition history

Early period: 1997-2003 After the 1997 collegiates, other teams at schools such as Stanford, UC Irvine, and CSU Fullerton were quickly established. The collegiate wushu community also developed a close association with the Beijing Wushu Team and Wu Bin in the late 1990s since Cal Wushu and UCLA Wushu hosted the team during their US tours. Some members, including Liu Qinghua, Jian Zengjiao, He Jingde, Li Jing, and Jiang Bangjun, would judge the 1999 collegiates in UC Irvine. After a number of incidents relating to competitor eligibility in that competition, the rules were revised heavily ahead of the 2000 collegiates. As a result, only UC Berkeley and Stanford were eligible to field teams to that competition. This collegiates also marked the first time a non-West Coast team attended the competition which was the University of Wisconsin–Madison Wushu Team. Other teams that were formed after the turn of the century were based at schools including the University of Maryland - College Park (Terp Wushu), University of Texas at Austin, Ohio State University (Dragon Phoenix Wushu Team), and UCSD.

Modernization: 2004-2019 In late 2003, the IWUF published the first draft of the major "Rules for International Taolu Competition" revision. As a result, the rules were revised ahead of the 2004 Collegiates which added a score component of 0.6 points to advanced changquan and nanquan that can consist of degree of difficulty (nandu) movements. All other events continued to be judged by IWUF 1998 Rules. In 2006, the US Wushu Union (not to be confused with the USAWKF) published a rules revision which was then adopted by the Collegiate Wushu Tournament in 2008.

In 2007, Terp Wushu hosted the first Collegiate Wushu Tournament on the East Coast, which began the trend of the tournament alternating between the west and east coasts every two years. This development along with Terp Wushu's University Wushu Games (UWG) promoted collegiate wushu on the East Coast, and thus teams at places such as Columbia University, Harvard, Cornell, Yale, and the University of Pittsburgh began to form.

Starting with the 2009 collegiates at Georgia Tech, Cal Wushu would begin a winning streak in the groupset and team all-around championships for a decade. One of the most famous incidents during this time period was during the 2011 collegiates at UCLA, where Keenan Stone of the University of Virginia lost his pants during his compulsory changquan routine. At the 2019 collegiates at UC Irvine, UCLA ended Cal Wushu's championship title streak in the groupset event.

Post-pandemic era: 2020-present The quick onset of the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled the 2020 Collegiate Wushu Tournament at Columbia University on very short notice. In 2022 amidst uncertainties over reopening, Terp Wushu volunteered to host the 1st Intercollegiate Wushu Games in May as a substitute for an official collegiates. A few months later, San Jose State University's Spartan Wushu won the bid to host the 2023 collegiates but faced several administrative issues. Cal Wushu eventually offered to host the 2023 collegiates. At the competition, UCLA Wushu became the first team to achieve a podium sweep for the team all-around championship. Terp Wushu also hosted the 2nd Intercollegiate Wushu Games the same day as the Collegiate Wushu Tournament to cater to East Coast schools. The following year in 2024, the first full collegiates in five years was finally held at UCLA.

Competition Unlike most national or international wushu competitions (with the exception of the Taolu World Cup), the Collegiate Wushu Tournament only runs taolu events and no sanda events. The competition runs both modern and traditional wushu events across advanced, intermediate, and beginner categories for each gender. All-around titles and degree of difficulty events are restricted only to advanced athletes.

As of 2024, almost all events are judged according to the 2002/2006 US Wushu Union Rules which are modeled after the IWUF 1998 rules. The 10.0 score is broken into three components: 6.0 points for "technical specifications of performance," 2.0 points for "demonstration of power and coordination of rhythm," and 2.0 points for "elements of spirit, rhythm, content, structure and choreography."

Champions

Groupset national champions Year Gold Silver Bronze1997 UCLAUC BerkeleyOregon1998 UC BerkeleyUCLAOregon1999 UC BerkeleyUCLAUC Irvine2000 StanfordUC BerkeleyUC Berkeley2001 UC Berkeleyunknownunknown2002 UC BerkeleyStanfordUCLA2002 UC BerkeleyUCLAArizona2004 UC IrvineUC BerkeleyUC Berkeley 2005UC Berkeleyunknownunknown 2006UC Berkeleyunknownunknown 2007UC BerkeleyUC BerkeleyUC Davis 2008UCLAStanfordUC Berkeley 2009UC BerkeleyUCLAunknown 2010UC BerkeleyUCLAUC Berkeley 2011UC BerkeleyUCLAUCSD 2012UC BerkeleyUCSDUC Berkeley 2013UC Berkeleyunknownunknown 2014UC BerkeleyMarylandUCLA 2015UC BerkeleyunknownUCLA 2016UC BerkeleyStanfordUCSD 2017UC BerkeleyMarylandStanford 2018UC BerkeleyStanfordMaryland 2019UCLAStanfordMaryland 2023UCLAUCLAWashington 2024UC BerkeleyUCLAMaryland 2025UC Berkeley UCLAMaryland

Groupset titles

School # Years won 20 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2024, 2025 4 1997, 2008, 2019, 2023 1 2004 1 2000

Team all-around national champions Year Gold Silver Bronze1997 UCLAUC BerkeleyOregon1998 UC BerkeleyOregonUCLA1999 UC BerkeleyUCLAUC Irvine2000 UC BerkeleyStanfordUC Berkeley2001 Stanfordunknownunknown2002 UC BerkeleyUCLAStanford2002 UC BerkeleyUCLAStanford2004 UC BerkeleyStanfordStanford 2005UC Berkeleyunknownunknown 2006Stanfordunknownunknown 2007UC BerkeleyUC BerkeleyUC Davis 2008StanfordUC BerkeleyMaryland 2009UC Berkeleyunknownunknown 2010UC BerkeleyUCLAUC Berkeley 2011UC BerkeleyUCLAUC Berkeley 2012UC BerkeleyUCSDUC Berkeley 2013UC BerkeleyunknownUCLA 2014UC BerkeleyVirginiaMaryland 2015UC BerkeleyUCLAunknown 2016UC BerkeleyStanfordUCSD 2017UC BerkeleyUC IrvineUC Irvine 2018UC Berkeleyunknownunknown 2019UC BerkeleyunknownMaryland 2023UCLAUCLAUCLA 2024UC BerkeleyUCLAUCLA 2025VirginiaMarylandIllinois Team all-around titles

School # Years won 20 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2024 3 2001, 2006, 2008 2 1997, 2023 1 2025

Individual all-around national champions Year Male Female 1997 Eric Yeh (UC Berkeley)Felicia Sze (UCLA) 1998 Luke Harrington (Oregon) Mae Hsu (UC Berkeley) 1999 Nathan Tong (UC Berkeley) Mae Hsu (UC Berkeley) 2000 Justin Ho (CalTech)Janet Hsu (Stanford) 2001 Phillip Chen (Fullerton)unknown 2002 Phillip Dang (Oregon)Ava Choy (Simon Fraser) 2002 Phillip Dang (Oregon) Tiffany Reyes (UCLA) 2004Phillip Dang (Oregon)Paula Amidani (UPIS)2005Charles Hwong (UC Berkeley)unknown2006Phillip Dang (Oregon)Kunyu Ching (Stanford)2007unknownunknown2008Dennis Ta (Fullerton)Stephanie Lim (Alameda)2009unknownunknown2010Jarrad Lee (UCLA)Stephanie Lim (Alameda) Elaine Ho (UCLA)2011Matthew Tay (UCSD)Stephanie Lim (Alameda)2012Colvin Wang (UVA)Annie Ma (UCLA)2013unknownunknown2014Jesse Lou (CSU SLO)Chrystina Yu (UC Berkeley)2015unknownChrystina Yu (UC Berkeley)2016unknownunknown2017unknownunknown2018unknownunknown2019unknownunknown2023David Cao (UCSD)Tara Chand (UCSD)2024William Vo (UCLA)Rainbow Huang (Northeastern)2025Bryan Gao (UMD)Christina Ou (Fordham)

Collegiate Wushu Tournament

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