André Almeida and the mission to get farther with BJJ in 2019

André’s four medals won at the 2018 Chicago Open. Courtesy of André Almeida

A high-performance athlete with numerous victories in some of the toughest tournaments int he world, André Almeida wants to have an even stronger campaign in 2019. After suffering from an injury for almost an entire season and covering, thanks to BJJ, this beast is now on the loose again.

A representative of Gracie Barra, André appears in the IBJJF rankings as one of the top best 20 fighters of his division, and his accelerating pace since last year is nothing to scoff at.

“For a few years now I’ve been fighting to build a solid career in the competitive scene,” he says. “At the start of 2017 I broke my foot fighting and went for a big chunk of that season recovering and training to make a comeback. The year 2018 was much better; it was phenomenal to me. I finished second at the No-Gi Pan, in New York. That was very cool.”

Last year saw André compete a whole lot. In the process of climbing to the top 20, wins came in IBJJF Opens in Las Vegas, Denver, Washington, Atlanta, Chicago and Austin. “Now, for this 2019 season, I want to hit the ground running even harder to win even more titles, focus on the more important championships, like the Pan and the Worlds,” he adds. “In 2016, as well as winning medals at the IBJJF Pan, I also won the ADCC Nationals in the U.S. in gi and no-gi (a really tough tournament), and I intend to fight once again under ADCC rules this year.”

André topping the Atlanta Open podium last year, in a hard-fought gi division. IBJJF

Of course, the life of a BJJ champion usually includes teaching, and André is happy to share the knowledge he acquired over years of training at Gracie Barra. “The year 2018 was algo good to dedicate myself to teaching,” he tells us. “I taught many seminars in America, at Gracie Barra branches in Santa Barbara, Aurora, Deerfield, West Lancaster and others.”

André’s goal is to put himself at the top of his division this year, already fully recovered from past injuries and training intelligently — and harder than ever.