Tokyo Olympic men's karate kata champion Ryo Kiyuna has retired from competition, the Japan Karatedo Federation said Thursday.
Kiyuna, 32, who hails from Okinawa Prefecture, the sport's birthplace, is known as "King" in the karate world. He won four straight world championships between 2014 and 2021 in kata, the discipline in which athletes execute the sport's prescribed forms and postures.
The winner of an unprecedented 10 consecutive national titles from 2012 to 2021, Kiyuna was Japan's lone karate gold medalist when the sport made its Olympic debut in 2021 in Tokyo.
