Karate

Spain’s Lidia Rodriguez, Spain’s Marta Garcia and Spain’s Raquel Roy compete in the Kata team female final during the 24th Karate World Championships at the WiZink center in Madrid. PHOTO: JAVIER SORIANO / AFP

Karate associations angered by Olympic chop

Karate bodies the world over have reacted with frustration to the news that the sport is unlikely to be included in the 2024 Olympics.

Karate

Spain’s Lidia Rodriguez, Spain’s Marta Garcia and Spain’s Raquel Roy compete in the Kata team female final during the 24th Karate World Championships at the WiZink center in Madrid. PHOTO: JAVIER SORIANO / AFP

The world karate association and a number of national karate bodies have reacted with dismay to the news that the sport will not be among the four sports recommended by organizers for the 2024 Olympics in France.

Over and above the existing Olympic sports each organizer puts forward four additional sports to be added to the Programme. In Tokyo there will be five sports added to the programme baseball/softball, karate, sport climbing, surfing, and skateboarding.

The sports added by the organizers are meant to add local interest. It was no surprise that baseball was dropped but the World Karate Association felt they had a good shot at consecutive games in Tokyo and Paris.

Association president Antonio Espinos said in a statement: “We believed that we had met all the requirements and that we had the perfect conditions to be added to the sports programme; however, we have learned today that our dream will not be coming true.

“France is one of the strongest countries in Karate. We had founded hopes to be in Paris 2024 due to the strength and popularity of our sport in France.”

The Paris organizing committee decided to retain surfing, skateboarding and sport climbing and have recommended the addition of breakdancing.

The association of Japan felt that the announcement has taken some of the lustre away from the sports appearance at the Tokyo games next year.

The Japanese association’s general secretary Shuji Kusaka said: “This (announcement) came even before people were able to see karate at the Tokyo Olympics. This will bring the mood down ahead of Tokyo.”

The Karate association of Spain issued a statement that read: “Yesterday (Thursday) karate suffered a massive setback. The karate community feels sadness, frustration and above all impotence right now.

“We will be at Tokyo 2020 at the highest level and we’ll show the world that our sport is as worthy as others and we will show the Paris 2024 organising committee how wrong they are.”

If the organizers list is approved there will be 32 sports featured at the Paris Olympics, Tokyo 2020 is slated to have 33 sports with a total of 339 events.

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