SANDRA SANCHEZ (ESP), 39

Once dismissed as too old to compete at the highest level, the Spaniard will be looking to add Olympic gold to her numerous honours just one month shy of her 40th birthday. She started practising karate at four alongside her older brother, rejecting her parents' chosen activity for her - ballet. She has won a record 36 medals in the sport's top-billed Karate 1-Premier League.

RYO KIYUNA (JPN), 31

With hardly a loss on the world stage, the native of Okinawa - the birthplace of karate - is known for the power of his air-splitting punch and is hot favourite for gold in the men's kata. Training under the great karateka Tsuguo Sakumoto, he has brought into his regimen the "Ryumai", or local Okinawan dance, to achieve what his master calls "artistic awareness" and to incorporate Okinawan culture.

HAMIDEH ABBASALI (IRI), 31

For the world's second-ranked karateka in women's kumite (68kg), the Games' one-year postponement was a blessing. The Iranian suffered a serious knee injury with two seconds left on the clock at the Karate 1-Premier League finals in Salzburg last year.

She won gold there against Italian Clio Ferracuti, but the injury took her away from the tatami for a year while she recovered from surgery.

KIYOU SHIMIZU (JPN), 27

A poster child for Japan's karate in the women's kata, Shimizu, like her perennial rival Sanchez, was inspired to start karate after visiting her brother's dojo as a girl.

Through most of her teens, the Osaka native struggled for success. But, in her final year of high school, she vowed to quit if she did not win the national championship. She did, and many victories followed, including the one in 2013 that crowned her as Japan's youngest national champion at age 19.

WEN TZU-YUN (TPE), 27

After qualifying once for the Olympics in March 2020, the female kumite (55kg) karateka had to do it all over again in a close contest after the Games were postponed.

An all-round athlete who has also played table tennis competitively, Wen counts her boyfriend Hsu Wei-chun - also a karateka - as her biggest inspiration to persevere through difficult times, including when a major hip injury in 2013 threatened to derail her career.

REUTERS