The Fariba Madani Story……                                                                             February 2009

Forty years ago in 1969, I competed in the first world wide Karate championships organized by the International Convention of Martial Arts (ICMA) the group that came to be known as World Union of Karate Organizations (WUKO). The gold medal was won by Dominick Valera of France, with me winning the bronze. This was the first time that I met Jacques Delcourt the future president and competed under a unified set of rules in an international setting.

In the USA, the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) governed sports then and Karate was accepted as a participating sport. For the first time, we began to use the same rules as many other countries as we were on our way toward becoming an international sport. I earned my first national referee license in 1976 in Joplin, Missouri at the AAU Nationals and my WUKO license in 1982 in Taiwan. The chairman of the WUKO Referee Council then was Mr. Max Vichet, a wonderful Frenchman, who taught me a lot about refereeing. Max had a passion for it.
We in the US were far behind the Europeans in organizing our sport and were trying to catch up. As I traveled to many international championships, I met and developed friendships with many senseis from whom I learned as much as I could about sport karate and refereeing. In those days I was determined to bring it home and “spread the wealth” to as many of my friends here as possible.

During the past 25 years, we in the USA became successful in training many excellent international referees. At times more and at other times less. We have come a long way since the early days and can be very proud of the great team of American referees presently holding WKF licenses. I take great personal pleasure in their success, as I had a small part in their development.

Several weeks ago, I had occasion to have dinner and spend a few delightful hours with three of  our WKF referees (half of our referee Committee) Alex Miladi, Cedrick Barksdale and Fariba Madani. Alex and  Cedrick  I have known well for 15 and 30 years respectively, but now I had an opportunity to get to know Fariba a little better. I was looking forward to dinner and a chance to get a “closer look”.

I had met Fariba over ten years ago when I was the Chairman and she began attending some of  my referee courses. Quite frankly, I didn’t take particular notice of her at that time, as she was a very private  and quiet person who came to the course and tournament, did her job and left without much fanfare. But as the years passed, I had opportunities to see her work at various national events and began to appreciate her skills as she  conducted matches. As I watched her recently I realized that she had become quite a good referee. She exhibited sound judgment, made the right calls, controlled the matches and the competitors and most importantly, the better competitors usually won. I was equally impressed with her calm and relaxed demeanor when in the ring. She didn’t seem to be fazed or nervous. She had confidence.

I was not surprised to hear of her continued success in achieving higher levels in the international arena and thought she was an excellent choice to be included on the USA referee committee.
Having known the few women referees on the WKF level,  I knew that they all needed and possessed determination and intelligence to achieve success in this man’s sport.  In Fariba, I recognized the same determination and talent that recently propelled her to become the highest female referee in the world.

As the conversation got underway she began to describe to me how excited she was to referee matches and how “alive” she felt in the ring. She described her enthusiasm and her passion for conducting matches. The word “passion” kept popping up during the conversation, as she became more and more animated in describing the skills needed to be a good referee. She certainly enjoyed her work and her enthusiasm was obvious. Over the years, I had many similar conversations with some outstanding referees from around the world and I recall how often I enjoyed watching  them conduct matches. I polished my skills at the courses, refereeing in the tournaments, and especially by watching these guys work.

I was impressed by Fariba’s words, her sincerity and her enthusiasm. I remembered back to the beginning of my referee career shortly after I retired from competing, almost thirty years ago. I too was excited and passionate about becoming a good referee.

A referee  I thought, was close to the action, on the tatami with the best in the world,  almost matching the skills of the competitors. I felt the challenge of keeping my timing sharp, by “feeling” the matches as they were developing and calling the points the instant they were delivered. This was for me the next best thing to competing. After all, it takes a sharp skill to keep up with the worlds best athletes and spring into referee action the second the technique scores. Kind of like the elite SWAT team members who go thru the sharp-shooting range with good guy and bad guy targets popping up suddenly. You need tremendous skill to react correctly by blowing away the bad guys and  not shooting the good guys. A good referee must have this type of instant judgment.

I realized,  listening to her, that she obviously knew what she was talking about. Although still quiet and respectful she had matured and become a senior official able to take her place on the worlds tatami.  I enjoyed our conversation very much.

Fariba is presently the highest female WKF referee and the first to be allowed to conduct a gold medal final match. This success did not come easily though. Fariba got her license the old fashioned way. She earned it! She has been officiating for over 15 years, became a National Referee in 2000 and received her WKF license in Mexico in 2004.

Looking back on the past 30 years of international refereeing, we in the USA  truly have a lot to be proud of. We have a great team of enthusiastic and competent officials on the WKF level who are training an entire new generation of future talent.

I was happy to have an opportunity to get to know Fariba a little better. I believe  we have only seen the tip of the iceberg and she has a long and illustrious career ahead of her.
I see may more success in her future and predict that she will end up a member of the WKF Referee Committee.

I for one, will be rooting for her.

Dr.Alex Sternberg
( recipient of the WKF Golden Whistle Award for over 25 years of refereeing)