Spain's veteran karateka Damien Quintero chats to SNTV ahead of Tokyo 2020

 

Just over five years ago, one of Spain's most successful karate athletes was splitting his time between practice, school and his day job as an aeronautical engineer.

Before training and studying at night, Damian Quintero spent hours analyzing faulty airplane parts and working on complex calculations to determine whether the parts were safe enough to go back into planes.

This left little time in his day to focus on the sport that he loved.

But that all changed in 2015 when karate made it onto the short list for the Tokyo Games.

Now, little more than five months before the Tokyo Games, Quintero is a full-time karateka and a top contender for the gold medal in Japan.

He is set to enter karate's inaugural Olympic tournament as the world's top ranked fighter in the kata category, in which athletes perform solo and are evaluated on their offensive and defensive techniques.

A good showing will be key for karate, which made it to the Tokyo Games but it is not expected to be included in the program for the Paris Olympics in 2024.

The sport was not originally selected by French organizers, although the final decision by the International Olympic Committee isn't expected until December.

If the sport is dropped, it would mean a huge blow for Quintero and other karatekas around the world.

Before the sport's inclusion, Quintero himself had considered retiring so he could focus on his career as an aeronautical engineer.

But he stuck with his sport, won the world title in 2014 and is a 10-time European champion.

His biggest rival in Tokyo will be Ryo Kiyuna of Japan, the fighter who beat him for the world title in Madrid two years ago.

There will be a total of 80 karatekas competing in Tokyo, divided evenly between men and women.

The other category in contention will be kumite, where fighters face off against each other and the winner is the one who gets more points for arm and leg strikes on the opponent.

There will be three weight classes for the men and women in kumite, but there is no weight class in kata, where seven judges evaluate the karatekas' individual performances and award points based on their technical and athletic presentations.

Facing a virtual enemy, athletes are evaluated on strength, rhythm, balance and power of strikes and kicks.

Quintero hopes he will be the one getting the points and a medal in a few months in the historic tournament in Tokyo.