For years, the jiu-jitsu community has demanded that the Olympics represent their art in the Olympics.
But one high-ranking jiu-jitsu black belt is not a fan of putting Brazil’s soft art in The Games, and that black belt is Alliance Team leader Fabio Gurgel.
In a post published on his website (read it here in Portuguese and in English below), Gurgel worries about the consequences of putting BJJ in the Olympics. He believes that BJJ would benefit “perhaps 20-30 athletes who would exploit the maximum of 10 available positions every four years.”
He also worries about it putting the sport in the hands of the government.
…and the rest? and the academies that exist today and have become the business of so many who chose to live on jiu jitsu? this would simply end completely because the command of the sport would go to the government, the sports ministry and all layers of state bureaucracy that is increasingly inefficient.
Do you agree with Professor Fabio Gurgel? Would putting BJJ in the Olympics hurt or help the art?
Sound off below or in this article’s Facebook thread.
You can read his entire post below (translated in English via Google Translate):
One of the questions I hear most from the general public is when Jiu Jitsu will become Olympic? This was a dream of every athlete in my time and still must be many today, but the people who most defend jiu jitsu in the Olympics are usually those who are just practitioners and art lovers and who probably would not participate in an Olympics if it happened, jiu jitsu lovers who would be happy to see our sport with a world show but the consequences of this, have you stopped to think? What is being an Olympic sport in Brazil? To benefit perhaps 20-30 athletes who would exploit the maximum of 10 available positions every 4 years, and the rest? and the academies that exist today and have become the business of so many who chose to live on jiu jitsu? this would simply end completely because the command of the sport would go to the government, the sports ministry and all layers of state bureaucracy that is increasingly inefficient. Imagine a politician of these that we have by regulating our sport and saying how it should work without having never dressed a kimono or having given a sweat in the training, this is what happens with so many other sports mainly those of martial art, who are the well people in this Olympic project in other martial arts? which academies survived this process of nationalization of the sport? Today jiu-jitsu has many difficulties and things to improve but we are the ones who decide the course of our sport and mainly of our business, only our success or failure depends on us and I am convinced that we will transform jiu jitsu into martial art more practiced in a few years. As for our athletes I would not worry so much because they can give seminars and earn thousands of dollars a year teaching and replicating their experiences, which strengthens the current of learning and good examples, creating idols for the next generations and helping jiu jitsu to become make it more and more a possibility for those who want to dedicate themselves professionally to it. And how do you think? share your opinion and share this issue for the jiu jitsu community to discuss issues of interest to everyone.
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