Saudi’s karate Olympian Tarek Hamdi hopes to add to his impressive collection of gold medals at international competitions when he takes to the mat at Tokyo 2020 on Aug. 6.
Hamdi, who will turn 23 during the Olympics, will be the Saudi Arabian delegation’s most decorated athlete in Japan.
Having started karate in 2009 at the age of 15, Hamdi won his first medal for Saudi Arabia, a gold, at the Asian Junior Championships in Uzbekistan in 2013. He followed that up by becoming the first Saudi to win gold in a Karate World Championship, at Jakarta in 2015.
In 2017, he claimed gold medals at four tournaments in the 75 kg category — the Asian Championship in Indonesia, the World Cup in Croatia and the U-23 Asian Championship and Asian Senior Championships, both in Kazakhstan. His achievements earned him the title of world most promising karate athlete for the year.
A year later he won three bronze medals at the World League in Spain, the World Premier League in the UAE and the Asian Games in Jakarta. He also won gold at the Asian Senior Championships 2019 in Uzbekistan.
Hamdi secured qualification to the Olympics with a gold at the Karate Tokyo 2020 Qualifiers in France earlier this year.
