by Devon McNeely
Updated for the upcoming 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. The 2020 Olympics have been postponed due to the Covid-19 Pandemic and will take place July 23rd – August 8th, 2021.
Karate will make its Olympic debut at the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo. The competition will be divided into two types of events, Kata and Kumite, each of which will be further divided into men’s and women’s events. Kumite will also have events for different weight classes.
Karate was one of five events added to the 2020 games in 2016. The others being: Surfing, Skateboarding, Sport Climbing, and Baseball/Softball. These events are not yet permanent additions and may not return in future years.
The competition will be presided over by the World Karate Federation (WKF). The WKF puts on the Karate World Championships and the Karate competition in the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires in 2018. The first World Karate Championships were held 50 years ago in 1970 at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo which has been selected as the location for the competition in the Olympics as well. The Budokan was originally built for the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo which saw the debut of Olympic Judo.
Kata
Kata competition consisted of performing a choreographed form chosen from a selected list of Karate Kata. the competitor is judged on many factors including the speed and power of the techniques, and the overall rhythm and performance of the pattern.
The Kata are chosen from a list of 102 pre-approved forms from the styles recognized by the World Karate Federation. These forms are chosen from Goju-Ryu, Shito-Ryu, Wado-Ryu, and Shotokan. Each competitor may only perform a single kata once in the competition and so must be able to perform at least four of them at the highest level. The choice of when to perform each kata becomes an important strategy for the competition.
Judges score on a point system up to 100 points with up to 70 for the technical aspect of the performance and 30 for the athletic aspect. The final score is created by taking the scores from the panel of 7 judges and removing the 2 highest and the 2 lowest and averaging the remaining scores.
The Competition will have 2 events, one for men and one for women. Each will have 4 medals, Gold, Silver, and 2 Bronze.
The Kata competition consists of 3 rounds: The Elimination Round, The Ranking Round, and The Medal Bouts.
Elimination Round
Competitors will be broken up into 2 groups each with 5 athletes. One by one they will perform a chosen kata which will be scored by the panel of judges. Once they are all finished they will then each perform a second kata. This is the only round in which they will perform twice. The Judges will use the average scores from the 2 kata to eliminate the competitor with the lowest score. The remaining 4 of each group will continue onto the ranking round.
Ranking Round
During the ranking round, the competitors will again perform a chosen kata and will be scored by the judges. The highest-scoring Karateka of each group will go on to compete for gold and silver. The 2nd highest scoring member of one group will move on to compete against the 3rd highest in the other group and vise versa.
Medal Bouts
In the Medal bouts, the top-scoring athletes compete one-on-one. The winner earns the Gold medal and the loser earns Silver. The 2nd highest scoring member of one group will move on to compete against the 3rd highest in the other group. The winners of these 2 matches are each awarded Bronze Medals.
Kumite
The Kumite Competition consists of one-on-one sparring matches. Athletes use punching and kicking techniques to score points on their opponent. Matches last 3 minutes with the time and the action stopping when a point is scored. The match will also be ended early and the winner declared if one of the Karateka has an 8 point lead on his opponent.
The Competition
Elimination Round
Competitors will be divided into two groups and will first compete in matches against the other fighters in their group. The 2 Athletes with the best record from the matches will move on to the Semi-Finals.
Medal Rounds
In the Semi-Final Rounds, the top competitor from one grip will spar the second competitor from the other group and vise versa. The winner of the matches moves onto the finals and the loser is awarded a bronze medal. This means two competitors will ear bronze medals.
In the Final Round, the top two competitors will spar for the Gold and Silver Medals.
Scoring
Points can be scored against the opponent’s head, neck, belly, side, back, or torso. Punches are worth 1 point, kicks to the body are worth 2 points, and kicks to the head or neck are worth 3 points. 3 points are also given for a scoring technique to an opponent on the ground.
Points may also be taken away for strikes below the belt or for not using control and harming the opponent. Injuring the opponent could result in disqualification.
Weight Classes
There are a total of 6 wight classes, 3 for men and 3 for women.
For men, the competition is broken into 3 weight classes:
Under 67kg
Under 75kg
Over 75kg
For the women’s competition, the 3 weight classes are:
Under 55kg
Under 61kg
Over 61kg
Each of the 6 competitions will each award a Gold Medal, Silver Medal, and 2 Bronze Medals.