October 1, 2015
Peter Sensei on TV!
Peter here;
Karate practitioners and athletes worldwide celebrated on September 28th after it was confirmed that karate will be included in the list for proposed sports at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
Alongside karate, baseball and softball, roller sports, sport climbing and surfing were also announced as potential sports to be selected at the final vote, held at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics next year.
As part of the announcements, each sport's national governing body gathered to hold a media conference, and I was honoured to be asked to be part of the presentation, distributed worldwide over the internet and various news stations.
Held at the Japan Karate Federation headquarters in Tokyo, alongside Japan national team members old and new, national high school karate championship winners, and national coaches, I was interviewed as a representative of the international karate community. Although I was originally going to speak in English, it turned out that I also had to speak Japanese too, to the amusement of the press! Hopefully I did a good enough job!
It was an incredible event, an a privilege to be able to be part of history. Certainly it is something that I will always remember.
Let's make sure Karate is selected for Tokyo 2020!
Peter Williams
International Department Coordinator / Karate coach