World Karate Federation

The World Karate Federation (WKF) is the largest international governing body of sport karate with 198 member countries.[4] It is the only karate organization recognised by the International Olympic Committee and has more than a hundred million members.[5][6][7][8] 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.[9] All the styles are officially recognised by the WKF.[10]

World Karate Federation
SportKarate
JurisdictionWorldwide
Membership200
AbbreviationWKF
FoundedOctober 10, 1970[1][2][3]
AffiliationIOC
Regional affiliationWorld
HeadquartersMadrid
LocationSpain
PresidentAntonio Espinós of Spain
CEOSara Wolfferdown
Vice president(s)Jose Garcia-Maañón, Nasser Alrazooqi, Bechir Cherif, Gunnar Nordahl, Michael Kassis, Wolfgang Weigert
(founded)October, 1970
Official website
www.wkf.net

History

Karate was introduced to Europe around the 1950s by Japanese masters, mainly from the Japan Karate Association (JKA).[11] In 1961, Jacques Delcourt was appointed President of French Karate Federation, which was at that stage an associated member of the French Judo Federation. In 1963 he invited the six other known European federations (Italy, Great Britain, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Spain) to come to France for the first-ever international karate event, and Great Britain and Belgium accepted the invitation.[12]

In December of that year, six of the seven federations gathered in Paris, in what was to be the first European Karate Congress, with the aim of improving and organising karate tournaments between their countries. It was noted that the unification of the different karate styles was impossible, and so they decided to unify the refereeing.[12][13]

By 1965 the European Karate Union was created, with Jacques Delcourt voted in as President. The following year the first European Karate Championships were held, in Paris.

In 1970, the International Karate Union (IKU) was formed by Jacques Delcourt in an effort to organise karate at the world level. Upon hearing this, Ryoichi Sasakawa, President of the Federation of All Japan Karatedo Organization (FAJKO), which later changed its name to the Japan Karate Federation (JKF), travelled to France to discuss the creation of an international governing body.[11][14] The IKU was quickly disbanded and a new organisation was formed between the EKU and the Japanese federation, and was called the World Union of Karate-do Organizations (WUKO).[15][16]

In 1985 the World Union of Karate-do Organizations was officially recognised by the International Olympic Committee as the official board for karate.[17]

The integration of several new organizations during the 1990s saw WUKO membership increase to 150 National Federations. Therefore, a new name that would more accurately reflect the size and scope of the organization was needed. The name of the first International organization representing sport Karate was thus changed to World Karate Federation (WKF) on December 20, 1992. [18]

The significant growth of WKF resulted in a consolidated organisation that fully represented the sport of Karate at the international level. This legitimacy was confirmed in 1999 when the IOC officially recognised the World Karate Federation as the sole governing body for the sport of Karate in the world. [19]

In August 2016 it was announced Karate would be in the 2020 Summer Olympics.[20][21]

Members

As of now, the global membership of World Karate Federation stands at 200 national federation members, spanning five continents.[22]

Continental federations
50 national member federations
44 national member federations
54 national member federations
39 national member federations
13 national member federations

National federations
Asia [23]
 Afghanistan Bahrain Bangladesh Bhutan
 Brunei Cambodia North Korea Timor-Leste
 Hong Kong India Indonesia Iraq
 Iran Japan Jordan Kazakhstan
 Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Lebanon
 Macau, China Malaysia Mongolia Myanmar
   Nepal Oman Pakistan Palestine
 China Philippines Qatar South Korea
 Saudi Arabia Singapore Sri Lanka Syria
 Tajikistan Thailand Chinese Taipei Turkmenistan
 United Arab Emirates Uzbekistan Vietnam Yemen


Europe [24]
 Albania Andorra Armenia Austria
 Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina
 Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic
 England Estonia Finland France
 Georgia Germany Greece Hungary
 Iceland Ireland Israel Italy
 Kosovo Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania
 Luxembourg Malta Monaco Montenegro
 Netherlands North Macedonia Northern Ireland Norway
 Poland Portugal Moldova Romania
 Russia San Marino Scotland Serbia
 Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden
  Switzerland Turkey Ukraine Wales


20x20x
Panamerica [25]
 Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Aruba Bahamas
 Barbados Belize Bermuda Bolivia
 Brazil Canada Cayman Islands Chile
 Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Curaçao
 Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Grenada
 Guatemala Guyana Haiti Honduras
 Jamaica Martinique Mexico Nicaragua
 Panama Paraguay Peru Puerto Rico
 Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Suriname Trinidad and Tobago
 United States Uruguay Venezuela


20x20x
Africa [26]
 Algeria Angola Benin Botswana
 Burkina Faso Burundi Cameroon Cape Verde
 Central African Republic Chad Comoros Congo
 Democratic Republic of the Congo Djibouti Egypt Equatorial Guinea
 Ethiopia Gabon Gambia Ghana
 Guinea Ivory Coast Kenya Liberia
 Libya Madagascar Mali Mauritania
 Mauritius Morocco Mozambique Namibia
 Niger Nigeria Rwanda Sao Tome and Principe
 Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone Somalia
 South Africa South Sudan Sudan Swaziland
 Togo Tunisia Uganda Tanzania
 Zambia Zimbabwe


20x20x
Oceania [27]
 Australia Cook Islands Fiji French Polynesia
 Guam Nauru New Caledonia New Zealand
 Papua New Guinea Samoa Vanuatu Wallis and Futuna

Competition and events

Kumite

Kata
team kata with bunkai

Para-Karate
  • Athletes with Visual Impairments - Men and Women
  • Athletes with Intellectual Impairments - Men and Women
  • Wheelchair User - Men and Women

References
  1. "WUKO Blog | Blog WUKO – WKF". Wuko.net. Retrieved 2015-09-30.
  2. "Karate's pitch for the 2020 Olympics - OlympicTalk". Plympictalk.nbcsports.com. Retrieved 5 November 2014.
  3. "World Karate Federation - WKF History". Wkf-web.net. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
  4. Warnock, Eleanor (2015-09-25). "Which Kind of Karate Has Olympic Chops?". WSJ. Retrieved 2015-10-18.
  5. CodexCoder. "World Karate Federation - The Book". www.wkf.net. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
  6. Smit, Sanette (2008). Karate. ISBN 9781847731500. Retrieved 15 November 2014.
  7. "Final Report on the XXVIIth Olympiad" (PDF). Olympic.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 November 2011. Retrieved 5 November 2014.
  8. "Karate's Olympic aspirations likely to get chop". Daily Telegraph. London. 2009-05-21. Archived from the original on 2010-04-15. Retrieved 2010-02-14.
  9. "World Karate Federation President Antonio Espinos Discusses the Olympic Dream - Japan Real Time - WSJ". Blogs.wsj.com. 2015-09-26. Retrieved 2015-09-30.
  10. Kata and Kumite Competition Rules, Archived 2 November 2020 at the Wayback Machine, on the WKF website
  11. "Black Belt February 1976". February 1976. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  12. Arriaza, Rafael (March 2009). "Chapter 16: Karate". In Kordi, Ramin; Maffulli, Nicola; Wroble, Randall R.; et al. (eds.). Combat Sports Medicine. p. 288. ISBN 9781848003545. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  13. "Sports Shorts". Apnewsarchive.com. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  14. "Democracy, Karate & WKF Politics" (PDF). Wado-uk.com. Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 April 2014. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  15. Evans, J. K. (1988): "The battle for Olympic Karate recognition: WUKO vs. IAKF." Black Belt, 26(2):54–58.
  16. "Black Belt June 1984". June 1984. Retrieved 5 November 2014.
  17. Guttmann, Allen (2001). Japanese Sports. ISBN 9780824824648. Retrieved 15 November 2014.
  18. "World Karate Federation - The Book".
  19. "World Karate Federation - The Book".
  20. "IOC approves five new sports for Olympic Games Tokyo 2020". IOC. Retrieved 2016-08-04.
  21. "Olympics: Baseball/softball, sport climbing, surfing, karate, skateboarding at Tokyo 2020". BBC. Retrieved 2016-08-04.
  22. "Membership". World Karate Federation.
  23. "WKF National Federation". World Karate Federation.
  24. "WKF National Federation". World Karate Federation.
  25. "WKF National Federation". World Karate Federation.
  26. "WKF National Federation". World Karate Federation.
  27. "WKF National Federation". World Karate Federation.
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