Local karate champion continues to make history
CHATTANOOGA, TN.- Joel Westbrook, a Rossville, Georgia native and student at Green’s Karate, continues to make history in American karate.
“When he came into the dojo 10 years ago, I was like I’ve never taught anyone in a wheelchair before, but I thought it’d be a really good challenge and it’d be fun and that’s how it started and ever since he’s started competing I started seeing that he was getting better and better and better and his time went by I just realized that this guy might make the team one day” says owner and coach Corey Green.
And Joel did just that. In late 2025, Westbrook represented Team USA at the Karate World Championships in Cairo, Egypt. Making him the first American male wheelchair athlete to compete at a World Karate Championship. Corey Green, of Green’s Karate, says that Joel is a one of a kind student.
“Joel is exemplary and everything he does. He is hard-working. He has great determination. He has everything you look for in a student. The right attitude, is coachable, is teachable. I’ve even heard professional baseball players say on live TV that they wish they had a son like Joel.” says Green.
Joel continues to push through boundaries and be an inspiration to many kids that walk through the gym. Green also expresses how Joel has helped him also.
“I told people that I wanted to build people up. To the point where when someone comes in they can not tell who has special needs and who does not. And I wanted to show the world that anyone can do martial arts no matter who they are and Joel embodies that exactly.” says Corey Green.
In May at the Pan American Karate Federation Championships in Rio de Janeiro, he went on to earn bronze.
“It’s a pretty big honor, to be the first American male wheelchair user on the team and secure bronze. I will say it was different, but it was fun all in one.” says Joel Westbrook.
After 10 years of being at Green’s Karate, Joel has won over 40 Gold medals while competing in a wheelchair. But Joel is not finished yet, he will continue to compete and he hopes that people can take away from his story, the “I cans, and not the I cant’s”.
