In Tokyo, karate will be an Olympic discipline for the first time. For the last time too, since this sport has not been selected for the 2024 Olympics. Steven Da Costa will be one of the two French representatives and one of the medal chances. Met two months from the deadline, he returns to his discipline and his games in the particular context of Covid-19.
For Steven Da Costa, his first Olympics will also be the last. Not that the young 24-year-old karateka would not have wanted to defend the tricolor colors in Paris in 2024 after the Tokyo Olympics. However, the IOC did not want to renew karate as an Olympic discipline.
“To become the first Olympic medalist in karate would be great, but to be the last one is ugly,” grimaces Steven Da Costa, arguably the best French luck in the discipline. “We have no explanation as to why karate will not come back. Yet it is one of the most popular sports in the world.”
In the Nippon Budokan, the mythical Japanese temple of martial arts in Japan built for the 1964 Olympics, the French athlete, who fights in less than 67 kilos, will have only one goal: “Gold! not go to Tokyo for sightseeing, ”says the athlete with a smile that never leaves him.
Laid-back, amused, 24-year-old Steven Da Costa gave us an interview as the final stretch before takeoff for Tokyo looms. For this born competitor, responding to the media poses no problem, as long as it does not interfere with his preparation. That day, he received us in an equally mythical place of karate: the Daguerre dojo, in the 14e Parisian district. This place, run by French legend Serge Chouraqui, breathes martial arts.
“The people who come to train there are the teachers of our teachers”, explains Steven Da Costa, well received by the old guard of karate.
Karate, a family affair
Steven Da Costa fell into the karate cauldron when he was little. Initially, he and his twin brother Jesse wanted to emulate their big brother, Logan, who had started, inspired by the karate films of Bruce Lee and Jean-Claude Van Damme. Since then, the father, Michel, has also started doing it. The three brothers are all high-level karatekas and dad is the trainer of everyone who works in the Mont-Saint-Martin dojo, not far from the Belgian and Luxembourg border.
“I was born there, I grew up there, I live there. My life is there”, explains the karateka, who even bought and renovated a house located between that of his parents and that of his brother Logan. “I went to the Paris region for seven years. I was there to become a professional but I was there a little reluctantly, I came home every weekend.”
Indeed, at the age of 15, Steven Da Costa went into exile in Creps de Châtenay-Malabry, south of Paris. He stayed there for seven years to face up to the demands of the high level: “It’s trying. You come home from lessons, you have training. You have good people. The whole French team was training there. When you were trained. I’m young, I think that’s the best thing, but then I got to an age where I could have the same conditions at home, “says the Moselle karateka.
“On a tatami, Steven, he’s easy. He’s someone who doesn’t stress, who is always smiling. Then, in front of his opponent, he doesn’t show anything. When he takes a point, he doesn’t lose his feeling. cool. He has his head on his shoulders, experience. And outside, he is the same “, describes Maxime Relifox, friend since Creps and” uke “- sparring-partner in the language of martial arts.
One year after their postponement due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Tokyo Olympics will finally open on July 23. Dozens of athletes will discover this great festival of sport in a very particular context linked to drastic health restrictions. France 24 went to meet several of them who will represent the new disciplines of these unique Olympic Games: surfing, skateboarding, climbing, karate and 3×3 basketball.
>> 1/3: Anouck Jaubert: “It’s a big step for climbing”
>> 2/3: Steven Da Costa – karate: “it would be nice to be the first medalist, bad to be the last”
The head on the shoulders which pushes the sportsman to already project himself in the after-career. He is part of the SNCF Athletes program, which allows him to reconcile professional life and high-level sport. When his career comes to an end, he will have a permanent reception agent from SNCF.
Olympics without family or spectators
In the meantime, Steven Da Costa has had a series of successes in his discipline. He has twice conquered the European Championships (in 2016 and 2019), once the World Championships (2019) and once the World Games (2017). In February 2020, he became the first French karateka to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics and the only title missing from his record.
In the meantime, the Covid-19 pandemic has passed by, postponing the Games by a year and forcing a total closed door and the absence of foreign spectators. For Steven Da Costa, whose family is a driving force behind his karate, the absence will be heavy.
“It is a regret that my parents cannot be there in Tokyo. It takes away the joy because they follow us everywhere and they will not be able to be there on the biggest challenge of my career”, regrets the karateka. “Afterwards, it will be the same for everyone. We make do with it.”
There was hope that at least his big brother Logan would travel with him should they qualify for the Olympic qualifying tournament in early June. However, the eldest Da Costa did not qualify …
Not enough to put a stop to the medal ambitions of Steven who will train hard by the deadline, on August 5.
“It will be training, training, training … The next step now is Tokyo and nothing else,” said Steven Da Costa, reluctant to dwell on his regrets.
“I do not want to look at him. I am superstitious. But with everything he has shown, he can win,” notes his friend Maxime Relifox.
.
