Joane Orbon is a 14-time USA National Karate Champion (2004-2019). Joane was born in Santa Clara in 1994. She moved to Stockton and attended elementary schools and Bear Creek High School, graduating in 2012. She then attended San Joaquin Delta College and Columbia Southern University in Alabama until 2018. Joane found her passion for karate in Stockton and at age nine competed at the National Championships where she took a Gold Medal. She spent the next six years dedicated to academics and karate competing in every karate event in hopes of becoming a world champion. In 2008 she made the Jr. National Team and was on TEAM USA representing the United States at the Pan America Championships. At the age of 13 she was able to win her first continental championship and attained her 1st Degree Jr. Black Belt the same year.
Later she earned a 4th Degree Black Belt in Gojo – Ryu Karate. After graduating from high school, she remained in Stockton to complete her Jr. National Team career with five Pan American Championship titles. She then transitioned onto the Senior National Team and won many titles. In 2016 the International Olympic Committee debuted karate as a part of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. She took this opportunity to move to Indonesia to become a full- time athlete and then to Kazakhstan for the next three years. She reached the rank of sixth in the World Karate Federation, winning multiple titles and on a sure route to the Olympics. But she suffered a broken ankle and could not compete in the Olympics.
After the covid pandemic she tried qualifying one more time in Paris but fell short of her goal. In 2021 she returned to the United States and opened her own karate school, United Bay Area Karate Club, in San Jose in hopes of coaching the next future karate champions of Northern California. She has continued to coach and advise in any way she can to continue to promote karate. The Stockton Athletic Hall of Fame honored Joane as Athlete of the Month for August 2013 and August 2014. In 2016, she was the USA Karate Women’s Junior Athlete of the Year. In 2018 she was named the USA Karate Women’s Athlete of the Year.
