Chris De Sousa Costa

Chris is a recently retired high performance national athlete with Karate Canada, Canada's official National Sport Organization (NSO) for the sport of karate. Karate Canada is the only karate organization that is officially recognized by Sport Canada, the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC), as well as the World Karate Federation (WKF).

Chris has been practicing the sport of karate for over 23 years and was a member of Karate Canada's National Team from 2004-2015. His last competition before retiring from competition was the Toronto 2015 Pan-American Games, where he was Team Captain for the Canadian karate delegation.

Chris is a 11 time Canadian National Champion, 2 time Junior Pan-American Champion (2005, 2007), 3 time North American Champion (2008, 2010, 2013), winner of the USA Open (2009), 2 time Commonwealth Champion (2013 x2), Senior Pan-American Silver Medalist (2012), a 5th place finisher at the Paris Open (2010, 2012) and Junior World Championships (2005). Chris is also a 3 time Karate Canada Athlete of the year, and 2 time recipient of Karate Canada's sportsmanship award.

Chris is currently Karate Canada's Athlete Representative on its Board of Directors, and its High Performance Committee; ensuring athletes have a voice on the issues which matter to them most, to foster an environment which is respectful, inclusive, and promotes sporting excellence.

Chris works as a personal trainer at a private family athletic club, as well as a CrossFit coach at All In One Strength & Conditioning (CrossFit AIO). Chris is a graduate of George Brown College's Fitness & Lifestyle Management Program, and is currently studying Communication Studies at York University, pursuing his Honours B.A. Chris wants to use his experience and work ethic as both an athlete and athlete advocate, along with his education in communications, to help bring people together to create both professional and personal relationships.

When Chris is not in the library studying or training clients to deadlift hundreds of pounds, he can be found training in the gym (lifting hundreds of pounds himself), in a coffee shop with a book, plotting his next travelling adventure, or getting some face to face time with friends.