The or ITKF is the international governing body for Traditional Karate. This organisation was founded by

Hidetaka Nishiyama was a prominent Japanese master of Shotokan karate.International T ...

. In the early 1990s, Nishiyama's refusal to align his ITKF organization with the World Union of Karate-Do Organizations (WUKO) caused the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swis ...

to suspend its recognition of WUKO as amateur karate's international governing body."Karate in the Olympics? More than a pipe dream". Coleman, J. (1993): "Watch out, WUKO—Here comes Shotokan Karate's Nishiyama! Noted Instructor claims he is ready to lead Olympic Karate movement if IOC ousts WUKO." ''Black Belt'', 31(4):18–22. According to the IOC decision 101 from 1993 the ITKF and WUKO had been due to merge and form a unified karate organization under the IOC suggested name of WKF. The IOC further indicated its intention to recognize the merged WKF should ITKF and WUKO successfully fulfill the IOC 101 decision guidelines, but this did not eventuate.World Union of Karate-Do Federations: About us
(c. 2009). Retrieved on April 17, 2010. The WUKO eventually became the World Union of Karate-Do Federations in late 2008.

ITKF Officials

*Chairman: Prof. Gilberto Gaertner *Board of Directors: Gilberto Gaertner, Antonio Walger, Roman Pavlovic *General Secretary: Luiz Alberto Küster *Treasurer: Rui Francisco Martins Marçal *Director General: Sadiomar Santos *Technical Committee: Gilberto Gaertner, Eligio Contareli, Justo Gomez *Communications & Marketing Committee: Eyal Nir, Roman Pavlovic, Ibrahim Al-Bakr, Leonardo Neves Berg do Prado, * Innovation and Technology Committee: Vinícius Sant’Anna Pinto, Joarez Evangelista Franco Junior, Rafael Gustavo Gaertner, Sheriff Abuel Enein,

National federations

The ITKF has national clubs in more than 60 countries.

References

External links

* 1974 establishments in the United States Sports organizations established in 1974 Karate organizations Karate {{karate-stub