Michel Wedel

Michel Wedel is one of the most striking fighters Kyokushin karate ever produced. A 197 cm heavyweight nicknamed Europe's strongest man, he won the European heavyweight title in 1981 and again in 1987, pushed Akira Masuda to a third extension at the 1984 World Open, and in 1987 won four straight bouts by ippon before losing a decision to Ademir da Costa. What amazes me is that he was a university researcher the whole time, and went on to become a professor of marketing. Fighting at that level while building an academic career takes a rare kind of discipline, and I respect it enormously.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Name (English)

Michel Wedel

Name (Japanese)

ミッシェル・ウェーデル

Reading

みっしぇる・うぇーでる

Born

1958

Origin

The Hague, Netherlands

Occupation

karateka / business scholar / university teacher

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Dog

University

Leiden University

Awards & achievements

• 2005 Dr Hendrik Muller Prize
• 2011 Fellow of the American Statistical Association

• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel%20Wedel
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%9F%E3%83%83%E3%82%B7%E3%82%A7%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BB%E3%82%A6%E3%82%A7%E3%83%BC%E3%83%87%E3%83%AB
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q24053957

Tags

• karateka
• business scholar
• university teacher

Last updated

November 2, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.