Karate

Karate is an Oriental martial art that developed primarily on the Japanese island of Okinawa, but quickly spread to China. There are multiple styles and schools of karate, but competitive karate is mostly held in the kata and kumite styles.

Karate has been held at multiple regional Games and appeared at the Youth Summer Olympics at Buenos Aires 2018, with events for boys and girls. The sport had its Olympic début on the programme of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, with eight events – a kata event for both men and women, and three weight classes of kumite for each gender. Being an optional sport for those Games, the Games staged in Japan are currently the sole Olympic appearance of karate to date.

Long before appearing at the Olympics, karate was already being contested at the World Games. Kata and kumite events have been continuously contested at the global competition since its 1981 inaugural edition. Although women only competed in a single kata event during the first edition of the World Games, all subsequent editions have included kata and kumite events for both genders.

Karate World Championships have been held since 1970, the first edition being held in Tokyo. As a competitive sport, karate is governed by the World Karate Federation (WKF), formerly the World Union of Karate-do Organizations (WUKO) from its foundation until 1990, which has 201 member federations as of January 2026.