Sandra Sánchez

Sandra Sánchez Jaime (born 16 September 1981) is a retired Spanish karateka. She won the gold medal in the women's kata event at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. She is a two-time gold medallist in the women's individual kata event at the World Karate Championships (2018 and 2021). She also won the gold medal in this event at the European Karate Championships in seven consecutive competitions (2015 – 2022). She is also recognised by Guinness World Records for winning the most medals in the Karate1 Premier League; she won 35 consecutive medals between January 2014 and February 2020.

Career

In 2015, Sánchez won the gold medal in the women's kata event at the European Karate Championships held in Istanbul, Turkey. In the same year, she also won the gold medal in the women's kata event at the European Games held in Baku, Azerbaijan. In the final, she defeated Sandy Scordo of France. In 2017, she won the silver medal in the women's kata event at the World Games held in Wrocław, Poland. In the final, she lost against Kiyou Shimizu of Japan.

Sánchez won the gold medal in the women's kata event at the 2019 European Karate Championships held in Guadalajara, Spain. In the same year, she also represented Spain at the European Games in Minsk, Belarus and she won the gold medal in the women's individual kata event. Lastly, she also won the gold medal in the women's individual kata event at the 2019 World Beach Games held in Doha, Qatar.

In May 2021, Sánchez secured the gold medal in her event at the European Karate Championships held in Poreč, Croatia. She also represented Spain at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. She won the gold medal in the women's kata event.

Sánchez won the gold medal in the women's individual kata event at the 2022 European Karate Championships held in Gaziantep, Turkey. She also won the gold medal in her event at the 2022 World Games held in Birmingham, United States.

She retired from competitive sports after the 2022 World Games.

In September 2022, a book series called Kat Karateka, written by Inés Masip and illustrated by Juan Carlos Bonache was released, inspired by Sandra Sánchez's career.

Achievements