KOKUMAI Sakura

General
TRAINING UNAFFECTED BY COVID
Speaking in March 2020 she said she expected her training to largely be unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic because kata is a non-combat discipline. Since returning to the United States of America from Japan, she had always trained by herself in the home of the family friend where she lives. "That's something we're all thankful for, especially for kata athletes, for our discipline. It's a good thing that karate doesn't need much equipment. All we have to do is keep on training with the space we have. So in that sense, I'm not too worried at all. I actually shouldn't be because the environment for me hasn't really changed in terms of training." (olympics.nbcsports.com, 19 Mar 2020)

JAPANESE CONNECTION
She was born in Honolulu, HI, United States of America, and has family ties to Japan. Her parents are both Japanese nationals and she completed her high school and university education in the country. She said she was often asked why she did not compete for the Asian nation. "I would get those questions a lot, especially by the Japanese media. It's always been hard because, for me, I started karate in Hawaii. I looked up to athletes on the US team. There was never a point where it was like, 'I have to choose'." Following the death of her karate coach in Japan, she moved back to the United States to a family friend's home in California to prepare for the Olympic Games in Tokyo. (olympics.nbcsports.com, 19 Mar 2020; pacificcitizen.org, 26 Jul 2019)

OTHER STUDIES
She also holds a master's degree in international relations from Waseda University in Shinjuku, Japan. (cnbc.com, 21 Feb 2020; teamusa.org, 04 May 2019)

She was the first US athlete to qualify for an Olympic Games in karate, when she was the sole US athlete named among World Karate's first 40 global qualifiers in March 2020 for the Olympic Games in Tokyo. (olympics.nbcsports.com, 19 Mar 2020)