The entire Canadian karate community was recently celebrating the historic participation of Mr. Daniel Gaysinsky in the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games, as the first ever Canadian Olympian in karate competed in men’s +75kg kumite division, at the world renown Nippon Budokan.

Daniel tied his first opponent in the round robin, Mr. Brian Irr from the USA (who was the Lima 2019 Pan Am Games gold medalist). Daniel then soundly defeated the reining -84 kg world champion from Croatia, Mr. Ivan Kvesic, in his second match (score of 4-1). Unfortunately, Daniel subsequently lost his following two matches against the eventual tournament finalists, Mr. Tareg Hamedi of Saudi Arabia (who ended up winning the silver medal at these Games) and M. Sajad Ganjzadeh of Iran (who earned the gold medal at these Olympic Games; Daniel only lost this last match by a very narrow points margin, on a 2-1 score). Daniel therefore finished his Olympic journey with a Top 7 position.

“Karate Canada is extremely proud of Daniel Gaysinsky who made history today as an Olympian and represented Canada with distinction” said Craig Vokey, President of Karate Canada. “With Daniel’s performance, we have shown the world that Canadian karate athletes are a force to be reckoned with. On a personal note, having seen Daniel overcome many difficult challenges to reach this level has been both inspiring and amazing. I could not be more proud.”

You may click here for full results of karate’s Olympic debut. Videos of the competition are still available at: https://www.cbc.ca/player/sports/olympics/karate .

Karate Canada now turns its focus towards the upcoming Senior National Team Trials (Calgary, AB, September 25-26), the 2021 Senior Pan American Karate Championships (Uruguay, October), the 2021 Senior World Championships (Dubai, UAE, November), as well as the Cali 2021 Youth Pan Am Games (Colombia, December).

Participation of Canada’s delegation in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games has, in large part, been made possible by the Canadian Olympic Committee and the Government of Canada.