(SOUNDBITE) (German) OLYMPIC HOPEFUL IN KARATE, JASMIN JUETTNER, DOING A KICK TOWARDS THE CAMERA, SAYING:
“My name is Jasmin Juettner, I’m 28 years old and I want to use this once in a lifetime opportunity to take part in the Olympic Games as a karateka.”
Jasmin Juettner is fighting for a spot at the Tokyo Olympics
which will be the first Games to feature karate
(SOUNDBITE) (German) OLYMPIC HOPEFUL IN KARATE, JASMIN JUETTNER, SAYING:
“I was super excited at the beginning and thought it would be so cool to go to the Olympics and that I had a good chance, and then we realized that only 10 athletes could take part in each category, and it was like a war started. And there were basically two years of qualifiers where every couple of weeks we had to head off somewhere across the globe to try and collect points for Tokyo. It was a pretty crazy time, and even with the training, we had to intensify the sessions but it was super exciting and very cool.”
Of 190 athletes that are members of the World Karate Federation
only 80 will be able to attend the Olympics
and only 10 athletes will compete in each event