Ross Rumbell Award Recipient: 2006

Before immigrating to Canada, Norma Foster was the first female in Aberdeen, Scotland to do martial arts. A true trailblazer for women in the sport, she joined Karate BC in 1981 and by 1983 she had established Team Kumite for women at the provincial and national levels and achieved four national gold medals for Team and Individual Kata and Kumite in 1984; and three gold, one silver in 1985. She also achieved silver medals for Individual Kata and Kumite at the 1984 Commonwealth Karate Championships. She turned her focus to refereeing the sport when she moved to Tokyo, becoming the first woman to achieve AKF, PKF and WKF Referee and Judge qualifications. Norma participated in over 60 international and 25 national championships as a Referee/Judge during her officiating career and frequently competed and collected medals in Japan.  She vigorously fought for gender equity in international Karate refereeing from 1990, and became the first woman appointed to the WKF Referee Council in 2003, and the first chair of the WKF Gender Equity Committee (now Women’s’ Sport Committee). Fittingly, Norma was a Technical official at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. She is the only woman in the world to achieve a 7h Degree black belt, and has served as a Director at Large, Vice-President, and President of Karate BC.