Karateka Elisa Au: 2003 Competitor of the Year
Karateka Elisa Au: 2003 Competitor of the YearBy Floyd Burk |
“From the moment we arrived at the championship, Elisa had this really strong mental attitude,” said John Fonseca, a member of her team. “She had such a strong belief in her techniques and abilities, which helped her stay poised so she could focus on executing the excellent strategies [against] each opponent. After she won the gold, all her teammates went crazy with joy.” Even before that victory, the 22-year-old champ was having a break-out year in traditional sport karate. Her major international gold-medal victories included the Women’s World Cup and the Pan-Am Championship, and she topped out at the USA National Karate-do Federation Championship, the USA Open and the Amateur Athletic Union National Championship. Au started to shine as a karateka almost from the day she was enrolled at Chuzo Kotaka’s shito-ryu karate school in Honolulu. Four years later, at age 9, she took first place in sparring at the AAU National Championship in New Orleans. Two years after that, she won five gold medals and was named Most Outstanding Female Junior Black Belt at the AAU National Championship. She participated in a load of tournaments in the following years, and at most of them, she entered the sparring, forms and weapons divisions and often the team competition, as well. That experience and the preparation for it helped her develop into a well-rounded martial artist. Her first taste of international competition came in 1995 when she was just 14. She flew to Canada as a member of the AAU Junior National Team—and proceeded to win a silver medal and a gold medal. The following year, she won two golds at the WKF Junior World Championship in Johannesburg, South Africa, then repeated the feat two years later in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Before celebrating her 18th birthday, she had accumulated five world-championship junior titles and more than a dozen national titles. By the time Au was ready to compete in the adult divisions, she was well-traveled, very seasoned and ready to take on the world. And she would need that confidence, for going head-to-head with the grown-ups was not easy at first. But by the end of the 2000 season, she had several adult titles under her belt. One of the most memorable highlights in her over-18 career came in 2001 at the World Karate Council World Championship in Scotland, where she won the gold yet again and was presented with the Sir Sean Connery Award for being the event’s outstanding competitor. In the aftermath of her pivotal victory at the 2002 WKF World Championship, Elisa Au has continued her winning ways and dominated nearly every event she’s entered—even though her job as a civil engineer occupies much of her time. Black Belt is proud to select her as its 2003 Competitor of the Year. (This profile originally appeared in the January 2004 issue of Black Belt.) 
Elisa Au: The Modern Training of a Traditional Karate ChampionBlack Belt Hall of Fame Inductee Directory |
