Noah Johnson

On Saturday, 7 August 2021, Sajad Ganjzadeh of Iran and Tareg Hamedi of Saudi Arabia met in the gold medal match for the Men’s 75+ kg Kumite in Karate at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. Minutes later, the match ended in controversy when a kick by Hamedi struck Ganjzadeh in the head, knocking him out cold. To the surprise and confusion of many spectators around the world, Hamedi was disqualified for ‘excessive force’ and Ganjzadeh was crowned the Gold Medal Winner. As karate is popularly viewed as a martial art for fighting or self-defense, the disqualification for ‘hitting too hard’ and winning by getting knocked out was met by many with confusion, frustration, and ridicule. In the days and weeks following this event, conversations proliferated in martial arts circles and in popular media channels about what exactly had happened, about how this reflected upon karate, and about how representative this event was of karate as a whole.

This paper demonstrates the manner in which representations in popular media shape mainstream understandings of martial arts like karate, by providing a media analysis of this historic event, contextualized with digital ethnographic methods—such as participation in online communities and voice or video calls for long-distance interviews. Additionally, this paper draws upon long-standing and continued ethnographic engagement with karate practitioners in the USA, Okinawa and beyond, to illuminate how karate practitioners—both sport competitors and those otherwise inclined—must respond to the fallout of these events their practice and in their daily lives.