The move to increase the tournament's grading was led by the Pan American Taekwondo Union (PATU) President Juan Manuel López Delgado.

"Today is a historic day for PATU - we can say that the work has paid off and it is now official that team kyorugui in its first edition in Pan American Games will have G-4 ranking," said Delgado.

"This means that athletes from the region will have the possibility of scoring points in individual kyorugui and also in team kyorugui, which will be a great boost on the road to Olympic qualification for Paris 2024."

The first of the continental qualifiers for Santiago were held in Rio de Janeiro, where 13 females and 12 males secured their places.

"This announcement opens a new panorama of Olympic qualification for the continent," added Delgado.

"We will also have team kyorugui in the Central American and Caribbean Games San Salvador 2023 and besides that, we have already established a circuit of PATU events where there will be team kyorugui with the intention of defining the heads of series of Santiago 2023, among which highlights the first Pan American Championship of this modality that will be in the framework of the continental events in the Dominican Republic on April 28."

Team kyorugui has never previously been held at the Pan American Games, but was added last month, and is set to be the first taekwondo team event since the sport was added to the Pan American Games programme at the 1987 edition in Indianapolis.

Taekwondo competition at Santiago 2023 is due to be held from October 21 to 24 at the Combat Sports Pavilion.

Under World Taekwondo's grading system for competitions, an event's value determines how many points an athlete is awarded for winning it - with a G4 event, which includes continental multi-sport competitions, continental championships and Grand Prix Series competitions, not offering as many points as a G20 event - a status that is only currently reserved for taekwondo competitions at the Summer Olympic Games.