West Vancouver’s Parvin Mayan loves everything about karate, but one thing above all else gets her really fired up: kicking somebody in the head.
Not to hurt, of course, but to see the officials raise their flags and award three points for a high-risk, high-reward manoeuvre.
“When I score kicks, those are always amazing,” she says with gentle excitement in her voice. “You look around to see if the flags go up, and when they go up you just feel overwhelmed with joy. You hear your team cheering behind you as well – I like moments like that.”
The 17-year-old, who just graduated from Rockridge Secondary in June, landed just such a kick in the gold medal match at the Panamerican Karate Federation Junior Championships Saturday in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Competing in the junior kumite female 59 kilogram final, Mayan needed to land a big shot as she was trailing 3-0 against a two-time Pan American champion, Chilean Valentina Toro Menses.
Mayan had already dispatched top-ranked fighters from the United States, Brazil and Mexico to make it to the championship match. When she nailed her opponent with a kick in the gold medal match, she tied the score 3-3. She still needed another point to win, however, and as she pressed on, Menses countered with a punch to regain a one-point lead with only about 30 seconds left. Mayan gave all she had as the clock ticked down but she couldn’t land another decisive blow.
“Time got the best of me,” she says. She was still, however, blown away to have come home with silver after taking on the best fighters from North, Central and South America. “After the match was over I was a little disappointed because I really wanted to win it but I was proud of my performance. … Winning the silver medal was just incredible. It’s still sinking in.”
Mayan’s performance in Argentina was the latest triumph in a blossoming karate career that includes a junior national title she won earlier this year. It all started when she was seven years old.
“I tried all these other different sports and none of them really stood out for me, they weren’t my type,” she says. “Once I was put in karate I just loved it the moment I started.”
Her career took off when she started going to West Vancouver Karate Academy and began working with owner and head trainer Matt Bickel.
“He’s such a great teacher, such a great coach,” says Mayan. “He’s been with me through it all.”
Bickel was a coach with the provincial team, and in 2016 Mayan joined him at that level.
“Once I made it onto the provincial team I got this huge rush of determination and confidence to just go – I wanted to just keep getting better and kept setting new goals for myself,” she says. “Get on the B.C. team? OK. Medal at nationals. Medal at international competitions. It was just a bunch of little goals that I kept reaching for, and once I accomplished them I kept getting stronger and stronger.”
The sport has done wonders for her self-confidence, says Mayan.
“Honestly I love the sport so much. My dojo, they’re basically my family. I’m there so much, I’m training a lot,” she says. She’s even taken to YouTube to post instructional videos on self-defence, something that was part of a Grade 10 course at Rockridge. Students were tasked with doing a project about something they knew a lot about and were passionate about, and self-defence was a natural choice for Mayan.
“I feel like it’s something everyone should know if they’re ever in a situation that they have to defend themselves,” she says. “There are some basic things that could save their lives.”
Practising karate has made her stronger in every aspect of her life, says Mayan.
“Strength in my body, of course, but also in my mind. It makes me more determined. I’ve set goals in karate, and that’s also reflected on my own daily life. I set goals on just regular everyday things to accomplish and it makes me think about results and how to accomplish those results.”
Mayan’s fondness for testing herself against the toughest opponents means that she’s on the receiving end of kicks and punches almost as much as she is dishing them out. And she’s fine with that.
“Yeah, multiple injuries,” she says with a laugh when asked if she’s ever been hurt during a match. There was one concussion a few years ago, but mostly it’s smaller knocks.
“It’s a lot of bruises. … A couple of bloody noises sometimes, and jaws being bruised. I’ve had to get used to it, basically. If it happens in a match, it’s painful of course but it’s just like, ‘It happened, I’ve got to deal with it. I can’t let it bother me, I’ve got to keep fighting.’”
Mayan admits to feeling some nerves before each of her fights, but she’s got a simple solution for that. “Before each match I take three deep breaths, then I’m ready to go in and fight.”
She’ll be in the fights of her life in late October when she travels to Tenerife, Spain, for the World Junior Championships. Full of confidence following her Pan American showing, Mayan says she’s hoping to make it onto the podium at worlds.
Beyond that, Mayan is looking further down the road to the Olympic Games. In 2015 the International Olympic Committee announced that karate will debut as a full medal sport at the 2020 Games in Tokyo. That was a life-changing moment for Mayan, who watched the livestream of the announcement.
“As soon as they announced it I went crazy,” she says. “I was telling everyone about it. I was so happy.”
First, though, she’ll contend with the world juniors, and Mayan says she’s thrilled to get the chance to compete for her country again in October.
“I feel really proud to represent Canada at these competitions,” she says. “I’m just really proud to be able to wear that crest and wear that Maple Leaf and go out there and fight for my country.”
