Karate at the 2020 Summer Olympics
The karate competitions at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo will feature eight events. It will be the debut appearance of karate in the Olympics. Karate is part of the 2020 programme as one of five sports added specifically for 2020 rather than as a permanent sport. Two disciplines karate will be featured. Kumite ("grappling hands") is the sparring discipline and will have three weight classes each for men and women. Kata (martial arts) is the form discipline and will have one event each for men and women. Every event will consist of 10 competitors.
Karate
Karate appeared in the Soviet Union in the mid-1960s, during Nikita Khrushchev's policy of improved international relations. The first Shotokan clubs were opened in Moscow's universities. In 1973, however, the government banned karate—together with all other foreign martial arts—endorsing only the Soviet martial art of sambo. Failing to suppress these uncontrolled groups, the USSR's Sport Committee formed the Karate Federation of USSR in December 1978. On 17 May 1984, the Soviet Karate Federation was disbanded and all karate became illegal again. In 1989, karate practice became legal again, but under strict government regulations, only after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 did independent karate schools resume functioning, and so federations were formed and national tournaments in authentic styles began.