Winner “Quinner,” Karate Dinner! Is this Year 12 the best Karateka in the world?

Recently, I met and interviewed Ollie Quinn, who is currently the 15-17 75KG world champion. Luckily enough for me, he is also a student right here at King Eds! We chatted about what the sport was like, the challenges that come with it, and what Ollie hopes for with his martial future. 

Before the interview with Quinn, the only references I had for karate was those films about waxing on and off. However, I soon learned from Ollie that karate is a sport built on discipline, relying on intense reflexes and incredible endurance to battle your opponent. The fights themselves are often in a ring-like area, similar to wrestling, and they last for 3-4 minutes per round. That might not sound like a long time, but that is 3-4 minutes of the most intense physical endurance you can go through, and it can get brutal! However, there is nothing below the waist in karate, so they are not complete savages (that is what MMA is for!). 

As for Ollie, he started doing karate when he was about 12 years old, thanks to his father’s former experience with martial arts and deciding what sport would fit his son the most. After that, Ollie was training as much as possible, not because he was going to be a world champion, but because he loved it. He loved the patience and the hardships that came with it. In our discussion, he described the practical elements of karate as “like a game of chess,” where each decision needs to be calculated, as a wrong move could be fatal.  

Ollie is a brown belt at the moment, one below a black belt, but that has not stopped him from climbing his way to the top. He has gone to Germany, Italy, and all over the world to compete in tournaments with WKU (the Western Karate Union). Quinn’s looking forward to next year as he will finally be able to go against adults, and he hopes to ‘fight his way’ up the karate ladder!  

Ollie Quinn

 (Photo reference: Karate Belt Order: Ranking System & Belt Colours & Meaning