Veronica Palmer’s silver triumph at Karate Nationals leads to Junior Pan American Games 

by Stephen Dafoe 

Rooke School of Karate’s Veronica Palmer earned a silver medal at the Karate Canada Nationals in Laval, Quebec and heads to the Pan American Junior Championships in Brazil in August. 

Palmer competed in Quebec in Cadet Kata Female and Cadet Kumite Female (+61KG), Kata Individual Female, and Kumite Individual Female Cadet. She took her silver medal in Kumite Individual Female Cadet. 

Palmer said the first step in her competition journey was to get onto Karate Alberta, which included several mandatory training sessions, followed by a selection tournament this past April.  

“I placed there,” Palmer said of the selection tournament, “so I was able to go on the team.” 

Representing Alberta on the national stage put Palmer alongside some top-talent teammates and top-talent competitors.  

“For Kumite, the girls I fought were strong girls,” she said of her competitors. “I made a bunch of mistakes myself, and just to compete against the best athletes in Canada was the main part for me. To come out second in Canada.” 

It is an impressive achievement for Palmer, who has been in the sport for ten years, having started at Rooke School of Karate at four. 

Palmer’s mother, Heather, said the family had initially looked at getting their son into karate. Halfway through that initial class, her husband signed up. “She would sit on the side of the tatami of the Dojo, crying, because she wanted to do it,” Heather Palmer said, noting that the family signed young Veronica up that September for Karate Kids.  

A decade later, Veronica Palmer is an assistant teacher at the school.  

“She’s taking on more of a leadership role, starting off classes, and leading classes for probably the last two years since she was about 12,” said Sensei Steve Rooke. 

Rooke attributes Palmer’s success to her dedication to the sport. “As a student, you have to be vested in your training, and Veronica’s done that, especially over the last two years,” he said. “She does a lot of work here with us and then she also gets training through DESA [School of Karate]. They’ve provided a Comp Crew class where kids that want to compete competitively will attend on Wednesday nights, and if they want additional sparring, they can go on Friday. She’s definitely made a big commitment to her training.” 

Palmer trains hard, training in her sport five to six days each week. Although karate is her top priority in sport, she also plays on the Four Winds Academy badminton, track, volleyball and basketball teams, the latter having recently brought the banner back to the school. She was also awarded Principal’s List in June and is active in the school’s STEAM program. 

Be it school academics and athletics or her beloved sport of karate, Palmer’s approach is the same focus. 

Prepping for competition involves putting on her headphones, putting on some music and blocking out reality while doing her warmup. “I try to escape reality in a way. I try not to focus on my other competitors in the warmup area because everyone is in that area,” Palmer explained. 

It is a recipe for success that Palmer will use next month in São Paulo, Brazil, at the Junior Pan American Games, running from Aug. 25 to Sept. 1.  

Palmer will be going with her first-place counterpart, an Ontario athlete she said is currently ranked number one in the world.  

A fundraiser is currently underway to send Palmer to the Junior Pan Am Games. “We’re trying to get some sponsorships from local businesses, and we have a bottle drive right now,” Palmer said of some of the efforts to raise roughly $7,000 needed for the journey. Palmer is confident she will raise the necessary funds and that she will do well in Brazil. 

“I never expected this to happen. I expected it when I was sixteen or seventeen, not fourteen. But going to it, I don’t really know. I feel excited,” Palmer said, adding this trip will be her first outside of Canada. “It’s kind of scary. It’ll be cool to see their way of life and how it works down there compared to Canada.” 

Palmer will compete in the same categories as Nationals, just with a broader Junior Pan-American roster of top competitors. 

“I think it’s a phenomenal opportunity for a small dojo to have representation going this far,” Rooke said. “It’s amazing. I’m very proud of her and watched her work hard over the last two years to accomplish a goal and she’s done that and over exceeded it.” 

Palmer hopes to continue to work hard in the sport with a goal of going to the Olympics in the coming years. 

Those interested in contributing to the fundraiser can visit https://heatherpalmer.ca/veronica/supportv/.