Maka Keburia, 28, Kobuleti

„On 23 November 2015, I gave birth to twin daughters. After one year, on 25 November 2016, I am going to participate in the world championship in Japan. I had been into Karate since I was a child, but my parents did not let me pursue a career in this sport. It’s not fit for a girl, they told me. I started to train for real in Kyokushin Karate in 2006 and in a year’s time had won the first place in the national championship. Since then I have become the national champion a few times. Later I competed twice in the European Karate Championship and became two-time European champion. Right now I’m planning to compete in the World Championship. I have never been held back by marriage or by having children. I’ve never even considered abandoning my career in sport, even though it is extremely difficult to find the right balance between the career and family for a woman, especially with two infants at home – you have to take care of them, feed them on time, prepare dinner. I have developed my own routine and I follow it strictly: I train while the children are sleeping. I need to train 5 hours a day. There are few women in this discipline because Kyokushin demands insane commitment and effort and women find it hard to do it along with their family duties. I know a woman who used to be an international level athlete, she had amazing results, but she gave up sport in favor of her family. I believe that if I have a purpose, I will set aside all the reasons of not doing it, and gain victory many more times to come. I am happy that my husband is very supportive of me. The only disappointment is that the Government does not offer any funds for financing an athlete’s costs of travelling to the international competition, especially to female Kyokushin athletes. I hope my competing in Japan will not be cancelled due to lack of funds and I will be able to bring another victory to Georgia.”