World Karate Federation Explained

World Karate Federation
Abbrev:WKF
Sport:Karate
Jurisdiction:Worldwide
Founded:[1] [2] [3]
Aff:IOC
Region:World
Headquarters:Madrid
Location:Spain
President:Antonio Espinós of Spain
Chiefexec:Sara Wolfferdown
Vicepresident:Jose Garcia-Maañón, Nasser Alrazooqi, Bechir Cherif, Gunnar Nordahl, Michael Kassis, Wolfgang Weigert
Url:https://www.wkf.net/
Membership:200

The World Karate Federation (WKF) is an 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]

History

Karate was introduced to Europe around the 1950s by Japanese masters, mainly from the Japan Karate Association (JKA). 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.[10]

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.[10] [11]

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.[12] [13] 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).[14] [15]

In 1985 the World Union of Karate-do Organizations was officially recognised by the International Olympic Committee as the official board for karate.[16]

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. [17]

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.[18]

In August 2016 it was announced Karate would be in the 2020 Summer Olympics.[19] [20]

Members

The global membership of the World Karate Federation stands at 200 national federation members, spanning five continents.[21]

Continental federations

!Continent!Name!Abbreviation !national member federations
AfricaAfrican Karate FederationUFAK50
AsiaAsian Karate FederationAKF44
EuropeEuropean Karate FederationEKF54
AmericasPanamerican Karate FederationPKF39
OceaniaOceanian Karate FederationOKF13

National federations

width=250Asia [22] width=250width=250width=250
Bahrain Bhutan
Cambodia Timor-Leste
India Iraq
Japan Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan Lebanon
Malaysia Myanmar
Oman
Philippines
Singapore
Thailand Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan Yemen
width=250Europe [23] width=250width=250width=250
Albania Austria
Azerbaijan Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bulgaria Czech Republic
France
Georgia Hungary
Iceland Italy
Lithuania
Luxembourg Montenegro
Netherlands Norway
Poland Romania
Serbia
Slovakia Sweden
Switzerland
width=250Panamerica [24] width=250width=250width=250
Bahamas
Chile
Grenada
Honduras
Nicaragua
Puerto Rico
Trinidad and Tobago
width=250Africa [25] width=250width=250width=250
Botswana
Cape Verde
Congo
Equatorial Guinea
Ghana
Liberia
Mauritania
Namibia
Sao Tome and Principe
Somalia
Swaziland
Zimbabwe
width=250Oceania [26] width=250width=250width=250
French Polynesia
New Zealand
Wallis and Futuna

Competition and events

Kumite

Kata

team kata with bunkai

Para-Karate

Rules:[27]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: WUKO Blog | Blog WUKO – WKF . Wuko.net . 2015-09-30.
  2. Web site: Karate's pitch for the 2020 Olympics - OlympicTalk. 28 May 2013 . Plympictalk.nbcsports.com. 5 November 2014.
  3. Web site: World Karate Federation - WKF History. Wkf-web.net. 29 December 2014.
  4. Web site: Warnock . Eleanor . Which Kind of Karate Has Olympic Chops? . WSJ . 2015-09-25 . 2015-10-18.
  5. Web site: World Karate Federation - The Book. CodexCoder. www.wkf.net. 17 April 2018.
  6. Book: Karate. 9781847731500. 15 November 2014. Smit. Sanette. 2008. New Holland .
  7. Web site: Final Report on the XXVIIth Olympiad. Olympic.org. 5 November 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20111107070616/http://www.olympic.org/Documents/Reports/EN/en_report_677.pdf. 7 November 2011. dead.
  8. News: Karate's Olympic aspirations likely to get chop. Daily Telegraph. 2009-05-21. https://web.archive.org/web/20100415163926/http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rodgilmour/9861749/Karates_Olympic_aspirations_likely_to_get_chop/. dead. 2010-04-15. 2010-02-14 . London.
  9. Web site: World Karate Federation President Antonio Espinos Discusses the Olympic Dream - Japan Real Time - WSJ . Blogs.wsj.com . 2015-09-26 . 2015-09-30.
  10. Book: Arriaza , Rafael . Ramin. Kordi. Nicola. Maffulli. Randall R.. Wroble. W. Angus. Wallace. 3. Combat Sports Medicine. https://books.google.com/books?id=Zwok7ECHn0wC&q=jacques+delcourt+1966+european+karate&pg=PA288. 288. Chapter 16: Karate. March 2009. Springer. 9781848003545. 8 November 2014.
  11. Web site: Sports Shorts. Apnewsarchive.com. 8 November 2014.
  12. Web site: Black Belt February 1976. February 1976. 8 November 2014.
  13. Web site: Democracy, Karate & WKF Politics . Wado-uk.com. 8 November 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140411093501/http://www.wado-uk.com/documents/PDF's/WKF%20Political%20Document.pdf. 11 April 2014. live.
  14. Evans, J. K. (1988): "The battle for Olympic Karate recognition: WUKO vs. IAKF." Black Belt, 26(2):54–58.
  15. Web site: Black Belt June 1984. June 1984. 5 November 2014.
  16. Book: Japanese Sports. 9780824824648. 15 November 2014. Guttmann. Allen. 2001. University of Hawaii Press .
  17. Web site: World Karate Federation - The Book.
  18. Web site: World Karate Federation - The Book.
  19. News: IOC approves five new sports for Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. IOC. 2016-08-04.
  20. News: Olympics: Baseball/softball, sport climbing, surfing, karate, skateboarding at Tokyo 2020. BBC. 2016-08-04.
  21. Web site: Membership . World Karate Federation . dmy-all .
  22. Web site: WKF National Federation . World Karate Federation.
  23. Web site: WKF National Federation . World Karate Federation.
  24. Web site: WKF National Federation . World Karate Federation.
  25. Web site: WKF National Federation . World Karate Federation.
  26. Web site: WKF National Federation . World Karate Federation.
  27. https://www.wkf.net/pdf/WKF_Competition%20Rules_2020_EN.pdf Kata and Kumite Competition Rules

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