The setting was not a tatami, but a conference hall in Berlin. From 7 to 9 November, the International Paralympic Committee brought together more than 250 leaders of the Paralympic Movement for its Membership Gathering, a three-day forum devoted to collaboration, the exchange of knowledge and the shape of Para sport’s future. The World Karate Federation was represented by Wolfgang Weigert, its Vice President and Commissioner for Para Karate and Refugees.

Para Karate is an IPC-recognised sport. The federation used the meeting to present its recent development, to strengthen its ties with the movement’s principal figures, and to set out an ambition that now has a date attached to it: to become part of the Brisbane 2032 Paralympic Games. That is an objective, not a place already secured on the programme.

A welcome from Parsons, and a word for Karlsruhe

During the gathering, Weigert met Andrew Parsons, president of the IPC, and Robyn Smith, president of Virtus, member-at-large of the IPC Governing Board and a board director of the Brisbane 2032 Organising Committee.

According to the WKF, Parsons welcomed the inclusion of Para Karate at The World Games in Karlsruhe in 2029 — as we reported in September, when the International World Games Association confirmed karate’s place on the programme with kata, kumite and, for the first time at the Games, Para Karate, from 19 to 29 July. The modality itself is not new to the senior calendar: it has been on the programme of the Senior World Championships since 2014; Karlsruhe will be its first appearance at The World Games. Parsons described it as one of the few Para sports on that programme, and as a development that also strengthens the IPC’s standing. He also underlined his positive impression of the recent Para Karate European Championships in Frankfurt, held from 20 to 24 May.

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Smith, the WKF reports, was particularly pleased with the inclusion of the Virtus K21 and K22 categories — for athletes with an intellectual impairment — in the Karlsruhe programme, a step she recognised as expanding opportunities for those athletes.

One table among twenty

Para Karate also drew attention at a roundtable in which karate was one of twenty sports presented to National Paralympic Committees. Weigert led the sport’s table during a breakout session on Para sport development at the sub-regional level, and reported strong interest among NPC representatives — an opening, the federation says, to promote the sport more widely internationally.

“Tremendous added value”

WKF president Antonio Espinós, in the federation’s statement, thanked Weigert and placed the file at the centre of the WKF’s work:

“I want to thank Mr Weigert for representing the WKF and Para Karate at the gathering. The development of Para Karate is at the core of the WKF’s programme, and we have made tremendous progress over the last few years, both through our international events and our collaboration with Virtus. We believe Para Karate can bring tremendous added value to the Paralympic Movement through its sporting spirit, its values and its social legacy. We remain committed to continuing this progress and creating more opportunities for athletes around the world.”

The path from a recognised sport to a Paralympic programme has not yet reached its destination. In Berlin, the WKF has made that destination explicit: Brisbane, 2032.

Sources

Photo: wkf.net

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