The World Karate Federation (WKF) is the largest international governing body of sport karate with 198 member countries. It was formed in 1990, is the only karate organization recognised by the International Olympic Committee and has more than ten million members. The WKF organizes the Junior and Senior Karate World Championships, which are each held every other year. The President of the WKF is Antonio Espinos, and the headquarters are located in Madrid, Spain. The styles recognised by the WKF are Gōjū-ryū, Shitō-ryū, Shotokan and Wadō-ryū.
The International Traditional Karate Federation or ITKF is the international governing body for Traditional Karate. This organisation was founded by Hidetaka Nishiyama. In the early 1990s, Nishiyama's refusal to align his ITKF organization with the World Union of Karate-Do Organizations (WUKO) caused the International Olympic Committee to suspend its recognition of WUKO as amateur karate's international governing body. According to the IOC decision 101 from 1993 the ITKF and WUKO had been due to merge and form a unified karate organization under the IOC suggested name of WKF. The IOC further indicated its intention to recognize the merged WKF should ITKF and WUKO successfully fulfill the IOC 101 decision guidelines, but this did not eventuate. The WUKO eventually became the World Union of Karate-Do Federations in late 2008.
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. Some of the most recent championships include 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.
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.
Seiji Nishimura, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan) he is a Japanese karateka. He has a 7th.Dan black belt in Wadō-ryū karate and is the national trainer of the Japan Karatedo Federation (JKF).
Victor John-Charles is a British karateka. He has an 8th Dan black belt in karate and is the winner of multiple individual and team medals at the World Championship, World Games and European Karate Championships. Vic Charles came 3rd in 1983 television competition Superstars. Vic Charles was awarded an MBE for Services to karate in the Queen's Birthday Honours List in 1989. This was the first time the sport of karate had been acknowledged in such a fashion. On retiring from competitive karate in 1990 Vic continued as Chief Instructor of British Sport Karate Association (B.S.K.A.) the Association he established in 1985. The Association dominated English karate competitions and won 2 European Club Team titles. The Association counted 3 World and European Champions as members Mervyn Etienne, Mike Sailsman, and Willie Thomas. Vic was appointed English National Coach in 1996 and became Technical Manager of the Performance Plan in 1997 until 1999. He was a member of the board of Karate England until 1999.
Eugene Codrington, Birmingham, United Kingdom) is a British karateka. He has an 8th Dan black belt in karate and is the winner of multiple European Karate Championships and was part of first non- Japanese team to win a World Karate Championships. Eugene is a founder member of the English Karate Governing Board (EKGB) for whom he is Senior Coach.
Dominique Valera is a French kickboxer and karateka, based in Lyon. He has a 9th Dan black belt in karate and is the winner of multiple European Karate Championships. Since retiring from competitive karate Dominique Valera has starred in French movies such as Let Sleeping Cops Lie.
The 1976 European Karate Championships were held in Tehran from 5 - 7 May 1976 and were the 11th championship in the series. The event was organized by the European Karate Union.
Junior Lefevre is a Belgian-Croatian karateka. He has a 6th Dan black belt in karate and is the winner of multiple World Karate Championships and European Karate Championships medals representing both Croatia and Belgium at tournaments. He is also chairman of C.I.K.A world.
Tania Weekes is a British karateka. She is the winner of multiple European Karate Championships and World Karate Championships Karate medals.
Leon Walters is a British karateka. He is the winner of multiple European Karate Championships and World Karate Championships Karate medals.
Karate at the Summer Olympics will make its debut at the 2020 Games in Tokyo, Japan.
John Fonseca is an aspiring actor, founding owner of Fonseca Martial Arts (FMA), and American karateka most well 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 hailing from Perth, Australia. She is listed among the top 100 Karate competitors of all time.
Achraf Ouchen, is a Moroccan Karateka athlete who competes in the heavyweight division. His biggest success is the silver medal of the 2016 World Karate Championships in Linz, Austria.
Ken Nishimura is a Japanese karateka. In 2019, he won the gold medal in the men's kumite 75 kg event at the 2019 Asian Karate Championships held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. He is scheduled to represent Japan at the 2020 Summer Olympics in karate.
Vinícius Figueira is a Brazilian karateka. In 2018, he won the silver medal in the men's kumite 67 kg event at the 2018 World Karate Championships held in Madrid, Spain. He is scheduled to represent Brazil at the 2020 Summer Olympics in karate.
Darkhan Assadilov is a Kazakhstani karateka. In 2010, he won the gold medal in the men's kumite 60 kg event at the 2010 Asian Games held in Guangzhou, China. He is scheduled to represent Kazakhstan in karate at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
Cherupalli Vivek Teja is an Indian martial artist. He has been a martial arts fighter for 19 years. Cherupalli is the founder of the Human Weapon International, a self-defense training organization. Vivek Teja Cherupalli claims that he has trained more than 19,000 women in the art of self-defense. The 27-year-old Cherupalli, who has Judd Reid as his coach, is also training to be a light heavyweight (75kg) category boxer.
