How a soul-searching journey to Japan landed Canada's Hana Furumoto-Deshaies in Pan Am Games dojo

Ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, Hana Furumoto-Deshaies faced a life-altering choice.

The Canadian karate athlete could pursue a spot on the national team for what might have been one of her few opportunities to compete at the Olympics. Moreover, the Games would be in her mom's home country of Japan, where her family still resides.

However, Furumoto-Deshaies was worn. She'd been in karate since she was five, and recounts now being "drained emotionally, mentally, physically and financially." She was also realistic about her chances of making Team Canada.

"I knew that if I tried for the Olympics and I wasn't going to be chosen, which was a high possibility, that I was just gonna be completely devastated and be like, who am I? Like already anticipating a bit of depression," she told CBC Sports in a recent interview.

And so Furumoto-Deshaies bowed out of Olympic qualifying. Instead, she moved to Osaka with the goal of learning more about her Japanese side.

"I'm just going to go do what I feel like is the right thing to do, which was to disconnect from the sport and get to know myself, my culture. … I trained a little bit at the beginning, but then I stopped. I learned Japanese over there, worked in Japanese as well, just got to know myself in the different way," she said. 

"That gave me so much more confidence. When I came back, I was like, I don't need this sport to define me."

Now 27 and ranked fourth worldwide in her weight class, Furumoto-Deshaies is off to her first multi-sport competition at the Pan Am Games in Santiago, Chile. Karate events run from Friday through Sunday, with live coverage available on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.

Furumoto-Deshaies, a native of Gatineau, Que., first started karate at