Former WKF chairman for persons with disabilities, Wolfgang Weigert, with Para-karate players in 2012 ©WKF

Karate will be able to submit a bid for inclusion in the 2024 Summer Paralympics after being accepted as a member of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) by the body's Governing Board.

To apply for Paralympic inclusion a sport must be recognised in this way, with the Board's decision to be rubber-stamped by the wider membership at the IPC Session in Mexico City on November 14 and 15.

The sport will aim at joining the Games programme "as soon as possible" once this is approved, the World Karate Federation (WKF) said in a statement.

They added: "From this moment, the WKF can call itself also a Paralympic Sport."

They join other recognised sport currently not on the programme, consisting of bobsleigh and skeleton, powerchair football, handball, hockey, flying disc, modern pentathlon, arm wrestling and squash.

Triathlon and canoeing were added to the list of sports for next year's Games in Rio de Janeiro, while in January it was confirmed that badminton and taekwondo will feature at Tokyo 2020.

A decision on new sports at 2024 is expected to be made in 2017 or 2018.

Current IOC President Thomas Bach alongside WKF President Antonio Espinós during the 2007 Bavarian Open, a landmark event for Para-karate ©WKF
Current IOC President Thomas Bach alongside WKF President Antonio Espinós during the 2007 Bavarian Open, a landmark event for Para-karate ©WKF

Acceptance into the Paralympic Movement has been an eight year process for karate, the WKF claimed, with the discipline growing ever since the first “Bavarian Open for Persons with Disabilities” was held in 2007.

This was an event attended by WKF President Antonio Espinós alongside current International Olympic Committee head, Thomas Bach, who was present in his former capacity as head of the German Olympic Sports Confederation.

Over the subsequent eight years, the WKF promoted this area through the work former chairman for persons with disabilities, Wolfgang Weigert, with an inaugural demonstration competition held at the 2012 World Championships in Paris.

A World Championships for Persons with Disabilities followed two years later, which was integrated in the 2014 World Senior Championships in Bremen.

Karate's application comes at the same time as the sport is bidding for inclusion at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

It was one of eight sports shortlisted last week into the second stage of the application process, with Japanese organisers due to nominate an unspecified number in September ahead of final ratification by the IOC next August.



Related stories
January 2015: Taekwondo to be added to Tokyo 2020 Paralympic programme as sailing and football seven-a-side miss out