Karate's cherished Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020 Olympics

One of the five sports added to the programme at Tokyo 2020, karate finally saw its Olympic pursuit that spanned several decades come to fruition.

In 2015, the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee proposed to the International Olympic Committee to include karate as a medal sport. On August 3, 2016, the IOC agreed.

Karate’s inclusion was mainly done with an eye on engaging younger people in the Olympic movement. Karate thus joined judo and taekwondo as the third Olympics-approved sport in the martial arts category. However, the sport was excluded from the Olympic programme for Paris 2024.

A Japanese legacy

Karate, which means ‘empty hand’, emerged in the Okinawa prefecture several hundred years ago and it was only apt that the sport will make its Olympics debut in the country of its origin.

“There couldn’t be a better place (than Tokyo) to begin our Olympic adventure,” said Antonio Espinos, the then-president of the World Karate Federation.

The event in Japan was held in Nippon Budokan, an indoor venue located in Tokyo’s Kitanomaru Park and designed to host judo events at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

Popularly known as the home of Japanese martial arts, Nippon Budokan had hosted the first Karate World Championships in 1970 and till date is Japan’s go-to venue for national championships of sports like judo, kendo, aikido and more.

Karate Olympic competitions and scoring

Karate in Tokyo had two events – Kata and Kumite - for both men and women, which saw a total of 80 competitors from around the world.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) also decided to move away from the traditional norms of karate to include only certain weight categories and introduce a modified points system for the events. To make the sport easy to understand for the new audience, animated scoreboards were used.

Kumite

While the WKF has five weight classes, the Olympics' men's and women's kumite event had three weight classes each.

While the male competitors fought in 67kg, 75kg and over 75kg categories, the female competitors competed in 55kg, 61kg and over 61kg.

Each Kumite fight saw karatekas competing against each other in an 8mx8m area over three minutes.

A karateka won points if he/she lands a proper strike - kick or punch - at designated parts of their opponent's body like head, neck, belly or back.

The first to score eight points more than their opponent or the one to finish the fight with the most points was adjudged the winner. In the event of a tie, the karateka who scored the first point was declared the winner and in case of a scoreless fight, the winner was decided by the judges.

In the Kumite discipline, the competitors in each weight category advanced through an elimination round to reach the semi-final and eventually the gold medal bout.

Kata

Unlike Kumite, kata is a performance discipline where men and women perform a series of offensive and defensive moves popularly known as forms. There was one kata event, and one gold medal, each for men and women.

There were 102 katas - like Heian Shodan and Nijushiho - approved by the World Karate Federation that the athletes can choose from to perform at the Olympics.

While traditional karate uses a flag system for scoring, a karateka’s Kata performance at the Olympics was judged on a number of parameters largely around technical and athletic performance.

With seven judges observing, Kata had a different point system as well, where a karateka’s two highest and lowest scores were not considered for their final score, which was established by weighted scoring around technical and athletic performance.

After the initial ranking round, a karateka either went to the final/gold medal round or the bronze medal round.

Qualifying process for karate at Tokyo 2020 Olympics

As per the Olympic qualification procedure, there were 10 karatekas in each weight class in the Kumite discipline for both men and women. For Kata, too, there were 10 men and 10 women competitors.

Karatekas were able to qualify for the Olympic Games primarily by two methods – rankings and qualification events.

While the official World Karate Federation rankings saw 32 athletes - 16 men and 16 women – qualify, the remaining 24 athletes - 12 men and 12 women – had to compete for their spots based on their results at the qualification tournaments.

Each country could not have more than four men and four women each and can have a maximum of one athlete at each event.

Japan, being host country for the Games, got eight quota places (four men and four women) for their Olympic contingent.

Karate at Youth Olympics

Before making its dream debut at the Summer Games in Tokyo, karate had already featured in the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Japan proved their prowess by winning four medals (one gold and three silver medals) at the Youth Games. Iran came a close second, with one gold and three bronze medals.