USA Taekwondo has rolled out its new rankings system following an extensive review and consultation period ©USA Taekwondo

USA Taekwondo has rolled out its new rankings system following an extensive review and consultation period.

The new rules see all players ranked according to performance at the organisation's sanctioned events.

According to USA Taekwondo, the aim is to "establish a much stronger pipeline of both athletes and coaches, far greater medal potential, and provide many more opportunities for athletes to compete in, and improve through quality tournaments".

It comes after the governing body recruited highly successful British coaches Paul Green and Gareth Brown to their set-up in December.

Green coached Britain's Jade Jones to two Olympic gold medals.

"The new ranking system serves multiple purposes for us and our members - it provides a much more compelling reason to compete more often, and in quality competition, than we have had before, and in doing so will drive up the standard of competition," said USA Taekwondo executive director Steve McNally.

The United States are hoping to unearth new talent such as Paige McPherson ©Getty Images
The United States are hoping to unearth new talent such as Paige McPherson ©Getty Images

"In turn, this will help us to produce better quality athletes. 

"If the membership gets behind this initiative as we hope and believe they will, it will also help us to provide much greater financial support to a much larger number of athletes, all of which will build towards our goal of returning to the top of the medal podium in international, and particularly Olympic, competitions.

"Beyond that though, and perhaps most exciting of all, we can now recognise and reward athletes of all ability levels - not everyone can make the Olympic team, but we believe there are many more achievements out there worth shouting about that go largely unnoticed, and every single one of our members will now be able to see whether they are number one or number 10 in their town, state, region, coast or country - all the way up to being the best in the world - and we think that's pretty amazing. 

"We can't wait to see who breaks out from the pack to become a star."

The United States won two silver medals at last year's World Championships in Muju in South Korea.

Paige McPherson was runner-up in the women's under-67 kilograms class and Jackie Galloway made the podium in the over-73kg division.

Galloway also won Olympic bronze at Rio 2016.