Karate as an Olympic sport? I'm not so sure.

i think both kumite and kata would have no problem fitting in the olympics. kumite has a certain elegance about it, a fluidity that can be apreciated even by the non-initiated, in slow motion so many can be seen. kata has the positions, like gymnastics, and the swift movements, and the facial expression of the competitor, just imagine a karateka performing a 'punch' or a kick inches away from the camera. it would be scary and awesome and the karateka would have no problem ignoring the camera so close.

Okay, so it may 'fit in' and look exciting to the audience but this is still a distortion of karate. Focussing entirely on the sports side will dilute the art of karate which is primarily about learning effective self-defence and self-improvement. Sports karate is just a sideshow not the main event.

let's face it, karate has been around for ages, there was even a time that taekwondo was even marketed as karate. i think it's about time that it should be included in the olympics as a regular sport. they included taekwondo which is just a spin off of karate, why not karate itself? in order for it to be recognized, there afre a lot of things that needs to be done, 1. since there are a lot of styles that are currently being by the WKF, they must compromise their styles & fuse them together inorder just to have one style in KATA. 2. there must be only one set of rules in KUMITE. 3. add more protective gears such as headgears with face protector, shin guard, forearm guard, hand mitts, chest protectors, groin protectors & foot mitts. 4. coordinate with an electronic company to have the protectors be coordinated with the scoring just like what taekwondo is doing in their tournamets. unless these criterias are met then the olympics will only be just a dream.  

Okay, I agree that most of the changes you suggest would need to be done but do we really want karate to go the way of TKD? I for one don't. Karate is a method of civilian combat not a sport - well at least originally it was. TKD as a sport has been reduced to nothing but a few high kicks, they don't even bother to punch any more. I would hate karate to go the same way.

Karate have already been recognized as a sport. They are included in the PAN-AM games, east asian games, south east asian games & the world games. These organizational sports bodies are even the olympic qualifier wherein you have to wn just to be qualified in the olympics. What they are actually going for this time is the olympic status. The WKF is also at odds with the ISKF, another karate group recognized by the IOC & a splinter group from the JKA which they are also supporting. Unless these 2 groups starts to compromise & WKF starts compromising internally with iys recognized style, they won't achieve the Olympic status. They do punch in Taekwondo, they just don't do it on tournaments but if you notice their poomsae, they do have punches. it's about time for karate to adjust to the current times, let's face it, some of the kata in karate are a bit antiquated. the reason they need to compromise among the styles is to regulate the different organizations so that these fly by night karate dojo to be eliminated. I should know, I was a victim of these fly by night schools claiming to be affiliated with such & such groups. In wtf-TKD, they have already eliminated the fly by night dojangs, nothing against karate.