Karate is one of the latest additions to the Olympics games. It is one of the 5 new sports being introduced at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Japan is the birthplace of Karate which makes it fitting for the sport to makes its debut at the Tokyo Olympics. Japan is the birth nation of this ancient martial art, which is one of the most popular sports in the world. The country has also claimed the most medals in world championship competitions. On August 3, 2016, the IOC agreed Tokyo 2020 organizing committee’s proposal to include Karate as a medal sport in the Olympics.
Karate has now become the third sport under the ‘Martial Arts’ category to be part of the Olympics. There will be 80 athletes in total at the Tokyo 2020 Games in 2021: 60 competing in the Kumite event and 20 in the Kata event. Both divisions will have an equal split of men and women competing. Karate has been included in the Olympics to gain engagement from the youth.
The Karate competition in Japan will be held in the Nippon Budokan stadium, it is an indoor venue located in Tokyo’s Kitanomaru Park and designed to host judo events at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. The Paris 2024 Olympics have not yet retained Karate as a sport, so the Tokyo Karate event winner may be the first and the last winner of a Karate competition at the Olympics.
