| Elisa Au | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | May 29, 1981 Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S. | ||||||||||||||
| Residence | Chicago, Illinois, U.S. | ||||||||||||||
| Height | 5 ft 6 in (168 cm) [1] | ||||||||||||||
| Weight | 135 lb (61 kg; 9 st 9 lb) [1] | ||||||||||||||
| Style | Shitō-ryū Karate | ||||||||||||||
| Teacher(s) | Chuzo Kotaka | ||||||||||||||
| Rank | 3 degree black belt in Shitō-ryū | ||||||||||||||
| Website | ElisaAu.com | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Elisa Au (born May 29, 1981, in Honolulu, Hawaii) is an American martial arts instructor and karate practitioner. [1]
Elisa Au was born on May 29, 1981, in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Gary and Jane Au. With the encouragement of her parents she began taking karate lessons at age five under the tutelage of shitō-ryū karate master Chuzo Kotaka. In 1990, Au competed in her first major tournament the AAU/United States National Karate Championships in New Orleans, Louisiana. She won gold, silver, and bronze medals at the event. [2]
In 1991, Au received her black belt under Kotaka and his International Karate Federation. [2] [3] As a teenager in her native Hawaii, she began teaching after school karate programs. Several of her students went on to become national champions, including one who would win two junior world championships. [4]
By the age of 18, Au had won three WKO World Championships and two WKC World Championships. In addition to her demanding karate schedule, she participated in figure skating, gymnastics, canoe paddling, and track and field, while attending Punahou School — an elite college preparatory academy in Hawaii. She also excelled academically and maintained honor roll status throughout high school. [5] In 2003, Au graduated from the University of Hawaii with a degree in civil engineering. [4]
Au continues to compete and make national and international appearances. In addition to competition, she teaches seminars around the world, including Japan, Canada, Australia and the U.S. She also stars in a six-set DVD series entitled SECRETS of Championship Karate that shares her training methods and ideas along with tips on how to succeed in karate competition. [6]
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Karate (空手), also karate-do, is a martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts under the influence of Chinese martial arts. While modern karate is primarily a striking art that uses punches and kicks, traditional karate training also employs throwing and joint locking techniques. A karate practitioner is called a karate-ka (空手家).
Shotokan is a style of karate, developed from various martial arts by Gichin Funakoshi (1868–1957) and his son Gigo (Yoshitaka) Funakoshi (1906–1945). Gichin Funakoshi was born in Okinawa and is widely credited with popularizing "karate do" through a series of public demonstrations, and by promoting the development of university karate clubs, including those at Keio, Waseda, Hitotsubashi (Shodai), Takushoku, Chuo, Gakushuin, and Hosei.
Kumite is one of the three main sections of karate training, along with kata and kihon. Kumite is the part of karate in which a person trains against an adversary.
The World Karate Federation (WKF) is an international governing body of sport karate with 198 member countries. It is the only karate organization recognised by the International Olympic Committee and has more than a hundred million members. The WKF organizes their Junior and Senior Karate World Championships, which are each held every other year. The President of the WKF is Antonio Espinós, and the headquarters are located in Madrid, Spain.
Hirokazu Kanazawa was a Japanese master of Shotokan karate. He was the Chief instructor and President of the Shotokan Karate-Do International Federation, an organisation he founded after he left the Japan Karate Association (JKA). Kanazawa was ranked 10th dan in Shotokan Karate.
The Japan Karate Federation (JKF), a.k.a. Japan Karatedo Federation, is a national governing body of the sport karate in Japan. The JKF is officially affiliated with the Japan Olympic Association (JOC), World Karate Federation (WKF), Japan Sports Association (JSA), and Japanese Budō Association (JBA). The styles recognized by the JKF are Gōjū-ryū, Shitō-ryū, Shotokan, and Wadō-ryū. Its headquarter is located in Tokyo, Japan.
The Karate World Championships, also known as the World Karate Championships, are the highest level of competition for karate organized by the World Karate Federation (WKF). The competition is held in a different city every two years. Championships in the 2000s included Madrid in 2002, Monterrey in 2004, Tampere in 2006, Tokyo in 2008, and Belgrade in 2010. The competition was initially riddled with controversy regarding karate styles and the ruleset.
Arnela Odžaković is a Bosnian karateka and sportswoman of the year in 2007.
The Trinidad and Tobago Karate Union (TTKU) is the National Governing Body for the sport of Karate in Trinidad and Tobago. The TTKU is affiliated to the World Karate Federation (WKF) which is the only world karate organization recognised by the International Olympic Committee.
Paul Noel Starling is an Australian martial artist renowned as a Gōjū-ryū Karate master. He was the most senior Caucasian student of Gōjū-ryū Gogen Yamaguchi, and is a world Vice President of the International Karate do Goju Kai Association (IKGA)
Atsuko Wakai is a Japanese practitioner of karate who has won many international and Japanese national competitions in kata (patterns), including unprecedented numbers of consecutive titles in World Karate Federation (WKF) and All Japan Karatedo championships. She holds the rank of 6th dan black belt from the Japan Karatedo Federation (JKF), training in Seigokan Goju-ryu karate.
USA National Karate-do Federation is the national governing body (NGB) of karate for the United States Olympic Committee and as such is the official Member National Association (MNA) of the World Karate Federation (WKF) in the United States.
Zeki Demir is a European champion Turkish karateka competing in the kumite -80 kg division. He is a member of the İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediyesi S.K.
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Mikio Yahara is a Japanese karate expert of the Shotokan style. He holds the rank of 10th dan.
John Fonseca is a former American karateka most known for being the first karate athlete in the world to win repeat gold medals at the Pan American Games, first American to medal at the Karate World Championships in almost 16 years (kumite), and first American to win the Paris Open in more than 30 years.
Karin Prinsloo is a South African karateka, gold medal winner of the 6th World Games (2001) in the under 60 kg Kumite category and Karate instructor formerly based in Durban, South Africa, now living in Perth, Australia. She is listed among the top Karate competitors of all time.
Luigi Busà is an Italian karateka. He is a two-time gold medalist at the World Karate Championships and a five-time gold medalist at the European Karate Championships. He represented Italy at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, winning the first-ever gold medal in the men's kumite 75 kg event.
Károly Gábor Hárspataki is a Hungarian karateka. He won one of the bronze medals in the men's 75 kg event at the 2020 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan. He won the silver medal in the men's 75 kg event at the 2023 World Karate Championships held in Budapest, Hungary.
Giana Mohamed Farouk Lotfy is an Egyptian karateka. She won one of the bronze medals in the women's 61 kg event at the 2020 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan. She is a two-time gold medalist in the women's kumite 61 kg event at the World Karate Championships. She is also a gold medalist in her event at the African Games, the Islamic Solidarity Games and the Mediterranean Games.
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