From left, Emre Kivanc, Kamran Mandani and Kerala Mandani pose for a photo inside the International Martial Arts Association in Louisville on July 2, 2024. (Alisa Noe/BoCoPreps.com)
The Paris Summer Olympics may be just around the corner, but one sport will notably not be featured in the 2020 Olympics – and that's where Kamran Mandani and Kerala Mandani come in.
The Mandani family has run an International Martial Arts Association karate dojo on Main Street in Louisville for the past 34 years, and co-owner Kamran, a 2014 Bloomfield High School graduate, had the opportunity to represent the U.S. team as an alternate at the last Tokyo Games.
Though he never got the chance to compete, he now works as a coach and sports psychologist for the U.S. team. During his 15-year career, he won 19 gold and silver medals in various competitions, including the Junior Olympics, Pan American Games, University World Championships, and the U.S. Open.
Now he makes a living getting into the minds of athletes.
“So much of what we do, a big part of it is mental,” Kamran explained. “How you wake up in the morning really impacts how you approach martial arts, not to mention the physical workout. You're actually taking hits and then you're trying to deliver them.”
He and his sister, Kerala, 24, recently took over the family business and now coach kids in and around Boulder County. One of their students, Emre Kivanc, a 22-year-old University of Colorado student, moved to Colorado six years ago to train at IMA.
He first met Kamran during a U.S. national team tour and is eligible to play for the senior national team for the first time in 2023.
“The quality of training with Kamran as our coach and the constant flow of people in and out of camp,” Kivanc said. “It's really nice. There's always something new to work on, something new to fix.”
A few weeks ago, Mandanis and the IMA hosted a high-level training camp for members of the U.S. National Team, along with members of several other national teams. They wanted to give the athletes elite-level experience outside of domestic and international competition.
Kamran was the sole coach at the clinic and Kerala was one of many talented athletic faces in attendance. She, too, has won “countless medals” over the years but is most proud of her fifth-place finish at the Pan American Games.
“It was hard, but honestly it was the best experience I've ever had,” she said. “It made me realize I could be a top-level athlete. And the experience of being on TV with thousands of people watching and going to the Olympics was even better.”
They hope that with the Olympics coming up in Los Angeles in 2028, karate will once again find its way back into the realm of the senior Olympics.
“It's easy to say, 'Let's just be positive,'” Kerala says. “What matters is that the Olympics are coming to America, so we're going to do whatever we can to get karate in the Olympics. There are people who are advocating and showing why karate should be in the Olympics. Karate is a really big sport in the world. Unfortunately, it's not that popular in America, but there are a lot of countries in the world that practice our karate or some kind of martial art.”
