Christina M. Kebort

EDITOR’S NOTE: Below is the biography of Christina M. Kebort, one of 11 inductees in the Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame’s Class of 2021. Other inductees are George L. Barone Jr., Harry G. Carlson, Andrew J. Creager, Michael A. Sirianni, Lewis G. Mack, Marc T. Tramuta, Randall G. Anderson, Sarah M. (Bogardus) Burnett, Larry E. Rodgers and Richard P. Shearman. These individuals will be formally inducted at a time to be determined. Current New York State COVID-19 restrictions prevent the annual induction banquet on Presidents’ Day in February. The Class of 2021 will be the 40th group inducted into the CSHOF since its inception in 1981. The new honorees will bring the total number of CSHOF inductees to 220. For more information, visit www.chautauquasportshalloffame.org.

Christina M. Kebort is the second martial artist and the first woman from that discipline to be inducted into the Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame as a member of its Class of 2021.

Kebort was introduced to the sport at age 5 by her uncle, Bill Kebort, who began his martial arts career while serving in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War era. She began competing when she was 6.

Kebort earned her 1st Dan Black Belt in 1996 and became a certified karate instructor in 1998. Her 5th Dan Black Belt was achieved in 2002 and her 8th Dan Senior Master Black Belt was awarded in 2014. She credits the mentoring she received from Rick Johnson at Johnson’s Martial Arts Academy of Warren, Pennsylvania and Daniel Genovese Kempo Karate for her success. Also instrumental in her career was Bob Servis.

In 2001 she made her presence known at the national and world levels when she won three prestigious titles, claiming the Black Belt Kata World Championship contested in Columbus, Ohio, the Black Belt Kata and Sparring U.S. Open Championships in Indiana and the Black Belt Self Defense Championship at the USA Nationals in Erie, Pennsylvania.

The following year, Kebort won the Continuous Sparring Grand National Championship in Rhode Island and became a lifetime member of the Black Belt World Bureau.

In 2009, Kebort captured the Master Black Belt Kata and Sparring World Championships in Ohio and she won back-to-back Master Black Belt Kata and Sparring Championships in 2013 and 2014, making her a seven-time world titlist.

In addition, Kebort received the Who’s Who in the Martial Arts Elite Women’s Budo Warrior Award in 2018 and the Martial Arts University Women’s Warrior Hall of Honor Award in 2019.

In 2020, Kebort achieved her eighth and ninth world titles when she won gold medals in both Master Black Belt Sparring and Kata at the 44th Battle of Columbus (Ohio) and was awarded a host of decorations, including the Arnold Legend of Martial Arts Hall of Honor Master Instructor Dedication Award and the American Martial Arts Alliance Who’s Who of Martial Arts Legends Award. Kebort became an inductee in the Universal Martial Arts Hall of Fame as the 2020 Woman of the Year, and she was featured in the Universal Martial Arts Hall of Fame Yearbook and the Martial Arts Masters and Pioneers Book along with Chuck Norris.

Kebort, born in 1977 and is a 1996 graduate of Jamestown High School. She is employed as a paraprofessional at Love School and is also on the staff at the Winifred Crawford Dibert Boys and Girls Club of Jamestown in addition to her work as a certified karate instructor with Kebort’s Karate Tigers at the Jamestown YMCA. She donated a kidney in 2018 in honor of her brother, Bill, who had died of kidney failure two years earlier.