A karate event not to be missed.

The French Steven Da Costa enters the running on Thursday August 5 at the Tokyo Olympics with the firm intention of finishing on the first step of the podium.

"It would be a great disappointment not to come home with the gold," explains the world champion of a discipline that could well become a shooting star of Olympism.

Admittedly, the long Olympic quest for karate - which began in 2000 - finally materializes in a beautiful setting, with the Nippon Budokan, a mythical temple of martial arts.

But as long to take shape, this quest will also come to an abrupt end since barely integrated into the Olympic program, karate will no longer be present at the Paris Games in 2024.

"The Games are the Holy Grail for any athlete, unfortunately they have a particular taste", regrets Steven Da Costa, one of the international headliners of the discipline.

"It's bitter. We have very little room, there is the virus, it is the first / last. There is a lot of disappointment. Something that is justified, we can be sad but not disappointed. 'is not justified, we are disappointed, "he slips about the absence of the discipline in 2024.

>> To read: Tokyo 2021: for karateka Steven Da Costa, "the health context takes away the joy of the Olympics"

"We're going to go back into the shadows. Before, it was like that and we had only known that. There, it's as if we were given a lollipop and taken away from us. The reaction will be complicated. ", he adds.

"I'm going for gold, not for silver or bronze"

World champion in Madrid in 2018 in his category (-67 kg), the 24-year-old from Lorraine clearly shows his ambitions: "I'm going for gold and for nothing else." "Of course, it would be a big disappointment not to come home with the gold, because I'm going for the gold, not for the silver or the bronze", insists the one who is the receptionist on the line. C of the RER and which can be crossed at Avenue Foch station.

In Tokyo, Steven Da Costa will find what is best, also facing karatekas of the lower category, since to limit the number of events, the International Federation has grouped two categories into one.

"Since it is not a contact sport, the weight / power ratio does not change much, unlike judo. And the -60 kg that will be at the Games, it will be -67 kg, that's for me. would be surprised if they were below 60 ", he assures us.

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"There are ten in each category and given the obstacle course that it was to qualify for the Games, honestly, those who will be there, they deserve their place," he explains.

His father, who trains him after being introduced to the discipline by his sons, as well as his brothers Logan and Jessie, members of the France team but who failed to qualify for the Games, will have to follow the Steven's exploits from a distance, in Mont-Saint-Martin in Meurthe-et-Moselle, health context requires.

In Tokyo, Steven Da Costa will not however have all the weight of French karate to carry alone on his shoulders, since Alexandra Ferracci in kata and Leïla Heurtault in the under 61 kg category won their place at the Games during the Olympic qualifying tournament. in Paris in mid-May.

With AFP

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