 | 
|
|
Friday, October 22, 1999
She gets her kicks breaking barriers
|
|
 |
|
Staff Photo By Keith Greene
Kathy Olevsky teaches a group of green belts at Karate International. She'll be promoted to sixth-degree black belt this
evening.
|
North Raleigh woman to receive high karate ranking tonight
By MELISSA CARTER, Staff Writer
RALEIGH -- Some say ours is a man's world, but don't tell Kathy Olevsky that.
You'd have a hard time convincing the 41-year-old mother of two, considering she's spent the past 20 years kicking and punching her way through the male-dominated sport of karate.
Tonight, she will be rewarded for her efforts when she is promoted to sixth-degree black belt -- an indication that, at least in certain spheres, women can, and do, rule.
Olevsky is the highest-ranking woman in the state, said Jan Wellendorf, a 10th-degree black belt and a founder of Karate International, a 5,000-member network of 20 schools spanning North Carolina.
Olevsky and her husband, Rob, a ninth-degree black belt, bought the North Raleigh facility from Wellendorf in 1979. Now they teach more than 250 students on-site, many of whom have been with them for years.
Wellendorf remembers when Olevsky came into his school two decades ago, the only female in an all-male class. The session did not differentiate between the sexes, and, he admits, she faced some "incredibly awesome" tests.
"Every time I saw her, she'd be wearing tape and bandages," he says. "She earned the respect of her peers because she stood her ground and fought back, literally."
Initially, sparring was Olevsky's least favorite part of training. For two years she struggled against man after man, in match upon match, until she finally started to excel. Then she realized she liked to spar -- a lot.
Still, Olevsky saw a need for change in Karate International's methods. She urged the head instructors to amend their teaching to accommodate the increasing number of women and children entering the school.
They listened, and the result was a new emphasis on self defense through exploration of other disciplines, such as jujitsu and aikido. Such change made it possible for people like Olevsky to make progress without becoming discouraged by the demanding nature of sparring.
In fact, self defense is one of the main reasons why many of Karate International's female students chose to join. Of the 44 black belts in the school, about a dozen are women.
Pat Horne, a real estate attorney and second-degree black belt, came to the school five years ago after becoming increasingly anxious about her personal safety. Now she attributes a marked increase in self confidence, strength, balance and speed to her martial-arts training.
"Karate is a great workout; it teaches you so much physically and mentally," Horne says. "I almost feel like a different person from five years ago."
A fitness buff all of her life, Olevsky approached karate as a means of exercise, not self preservation. However, after being attacked in a laundromat only a week after her first class, she developed a greater appreciation for that aspect of the martial arts.
Since then, she has passed on to thousands of women, men and children the ability to defend themselves, via her teaching of self defense through mini courses, specially tailored classes (such as for a spinal cord injury group) and through physical education classes at Meredith and Peace colleges.
And tonight, Olevsky will demonstrate a few of those defensive maneuvers in an event dubbed "Black Belt Friday."
Festivities will start at 7 p.m. at Karate International, at the Pavilion shopping center on the corner of Spring Forest Road and Atlantic Avenue.
"This is the most entertaining thing that you could possibly go to twice a year, and we sell out every time," Olevsky says. "People stand at the window looking in because we can't legally pack any more people in here than we seat."
Part of that draw will be Olevsky herself. As one of four individuals performing "amazing human physical feats," she will break four 12-inch square panes of glass, each with a different blow -- a punch, a knife-hand strike, a spinning back kick and a wheel kick.
Add those accomplishments to her already lengthy list -- including more than 150 awards and three gold medals won at the 1994 State Games -- and you might expect the 1997 Who's Who of American Women inductee to be satisfied.
Then again, there are only four degrees separating her from the apex of her sport.
"Maybe at 10th, I'll rest on my laurels," she says, laughing.
Melissa Carter can be reached at 836-4951 or melissac@nando.com
|
|
