Rika usami biography

Rika Usami (宇佐美里香, Usami Rika, born February 20, 1986) is a Japanese karateka.
Rika Usami was born on 20 February 1986, in Tokyo Japan.
Rika Usami is a Japanese karateka.

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Rika Usami was born in Japan and she is known worldwide for her excellent kata. During the 2012 World Karate Championship in Paris she performed the Kata Chatanyara Kushanku in front of more than 12,000 people and received a standing ovation that lasted more than 5 minutes.

After having seen a “cool female fighter on TV”, 10 year old Rika followed her brother to a local dojo near their home in Toyko and began training in Goju-ryu karate. She would eventually train with Yoshimi Inoue.

As a 12 year old Green Belt, Rika began competing in very small tournaments, but it wasn’t until she was 15 that she began to compete in larger tournaments, and she was 17 years old when she won her first big tournament, the Junior World Championship. Riki would eventually participate in numerous very large competitions becoming a world champion over and over again.

Rika Usami received gold medals from the Japanese National Championships, Asian Championships, WKF World Karate Championships, Istanbul Open, Jakarta Open, Dutch Open, Paris Open, Salzburg Open and from numerous o

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Exclusive Interview: Rika Usami – The Undisputed Queen of Karate Kata

Imagine this sound:

12’000 people giving somebody a 5-minute-long standing ovation.

Now, imagine this “somebody” is a tiny Japanese girl, performing kata in the middle of a huge arena!

Her name is Rika Usami.

At the 2012 World Championships in Paris.

That’s the incredible power of her kata!

Rika Usami is truly one of a kind when it comes to the technical execution of kata.

Her merits include gold medals from huge competitions such as the Japanese National Championships, Asian Championships, World Championships, Istanbul Open, Jakarta Open, Dutch Open, Paris Open, Salzburg Open and other events in the international tournament scene.

I’ve been filming her top-class kata performances for a long time.

You’ve probably seen her Bassai Dai, Seienchin, Koshokun Dai, Koshokun Sho, Tomari Bassai or Chatan Yara Koshokun many times if you follow my YouTube channel.

However, not until this weekend did I actually interview her!

And the result was epic…

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Rika Usami

Japanese karateka (born 1986)

Rika Usami (宇佐美里香, Usami Rika, born February 20, 1986) is a Japanese karateka. She won a Gold medal in individual kata at the 2012 World Karate Championships after previously winning Bronze at the 2010 Championships.^[1] She also won Gold in the same category at the 2010 Asian Games. As of March 2021^[update], Usami is coaching the karate team at Kokushikan University.^[2]

Early life

Usami was born on February 20, 1986, in Tokyo, Japan. She had said in an interview that she started karate when she was 10 years old by joining a Goju-ryu-style dojo located near her family's house in Tokyo, after seeing a female fighter on television. Her older brother had been practicing karate and let Usami wear his karate gi on occasions, so that helped her a lot when she decided to eventually start practicing karate herself.

Usami's first karate tournament was when she was a green belt at 12 years old in elementary school. Usami did not participate in big tournaments until age 15 and won her first tournament