Despite being one of the most popular sports in the world, karate was just added to the
Olympics this year!
Here's what you need to know to watch and enjoy.
The sport of karate has been forced to sit back and watch other martial arts enjoy the
spotlight of the Olympic Games for decades.
Wrestling, taekwondo, judo, fencing, and boxing have become a normal part of the glorious
quaternary event while karate was tearing it up in movies, tv shows, and, of course,
the World Karate Federation tournaments and other such events.
That's because, as the USA Olympic Team website points out, it wasn't until the 2020, postponed
to 2021, games in Tokyo that this sport was allowed to claim what many martial artists
would agree to be its proper place, despite the attention the sport has garnished.
That is, karate wasn't allowed into the games until now.
Why is this odd exactly?
Well, according to Karate Atlanta, karate is one of the most popular martial arts in
the world.
In fact, the Nippon Communications Foundation says, as of 2017, over 100 million people
worldwide practice the art of karate across 192 countries, which many would argue makes
it a true international competition worthy of being included in the Olympics.
Sure, the Olympic Committee denied karate entry into the games since the worldwide event
first began, but maybe that's only because they were waiting for the most fitting location
they could think of to reveal the sport for the first time.
The 2020 games, after all, are being held in Japan, the birthplace of karate.
In the history laid by the Japan Karate Association, karate, as we know it today, originated in
the collection of Japanese islands known as Okinawa roughly 500 years ago, or so it's
believed.
The martial art that karate stems from appeared on the islands long before that thanks to
the region's abundant history of trade with China.
That Chinese kempo would be developed into martial art called "te" and later karate over
an unknown number of years.
From Okinawa, karate would spread into the culture of other Japanese islands, and, according
to Karate Atlanta, would reach its wave of international fame after WWII.
The karate you'll watch during the 2020 Olympics will come in all different shapes and sizes.
There are multiple different styles of the art, multiple associations within each art,
multiple schools for each of those, and so on.
And you'll see all of them compete in two different competitions.
One of the competitions you'll see is called "Kata."
Katas are series of movements strung together that a single practitioner can use to practice
the art, also known as "forms" in the general martial arts world.
According to the Olympics website, the Kata event will have a single gold medal for men
and for women, totaling two medals.
The other karate competition is known as "Kumite."
Kumite is the karate word for "fight" used to describe competition sparring.
Unlike doing movements by yourself on the floor, competitors will be fighting each other.
And in an event like that, weight classes are necessary.
The Kata event won't have weight classes, but it will be broken up into a men's and
women's competition.
Each competitor will perform one of 102 approved Katas, according to the official Olympics
webpage, in a performance akin to the gymnastics floor competition.
They'll be scored on a point system based primarily on their athletic and technical
skills.
When it comes to the Kumite event, things get a bit heavier.
There are three weight classes for men and women, which is a condensed version of the
typical weight classes the World Karate Federation uses.
The scoring system will also be point-based, with each competitor gaining points in a match
when they land solid and approved techniques.
Competitors will win a match and advance if they get eight points ahead of their opponent
or have the highest number of points at the end of the three-minute round.
In the case of a tie, judges will make the final decision.
Strikes in Kumite can only be thrown to the head, neck, and all sides of the torso.
And, yes, knockouts can happen.
Karate has had a difficult time making it into the Olympics.
In 2009 the International Olympic Committee, or IOC, voted against the inclusion of karate
in the then-upcoming games.
Even with the sport's luck in the 2020 games in Tokyo, Japan, things don't seem to be looking
much better in the near future.
In 2019, as BBC notes, when the shortlist of sports was announced for the 2024 Paris
Olympics, karate didn't make the cut.
"No more karate.
It's over."
On the Paris Olympics website, you'll see all sorts of sports, including a few new additions,
like breakdancing.
It almost seems like the IOC is trying to throw in a few random events every four years
just to keep things exciting, and people within the karate community aren't happy about it.
The head of the World Karate Association relayed the organization's sadness over the decision
to Reuters, pointing out a few solid arguments he believed would have granted the sport of
karate a shot in this particular games.
First off, he says the sport has met all of the requirements for inclusion.
Next, he mentions that France has extremely strong karate competitors, and they should
surely want to show that off.
And, finally, he points out that this announcement came before the 2020 Olympics got to see what
karate had to offer.
Whether this argument makes any headway for 2024 or beyond, we'll just have to wait and
see.
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