A few years ago there was much excitement about the fact there was moment on the front of getting jiu jitsu in the Olympics.
The push for Olympic recognation is supported by many including Renzo Gracie.
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Gracie talked to the national.ae about how he believes that the UAE’s involvement in the sport will have a huge impact in raising Jiu-Jitsu’s hope of reaching the Olympic games.
“It has everything to become an Olympic sport! Now in partnership with the Emirates, I believe it is a certain goal.
“This won’t take long for the sport to reach the Olympics because the last championship in Abu Dhabi [World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship] drew more than 3,000 participants.
“The last competition in California [the World Championship] had over 2,500. These numbers would certainly not go unnoticed.”
However one worthy opponent is Alliance master Fabio Gurgel who penned a post (in Portuguese) about it:
One of the questions I hear most from the general public is when Jiu Jitsu will become an Olympic sport? this was a dream of every athlete in my time and still must be of 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 at a world exhibition- but have they stopped to think the consequences of this?
What is being an Olympic sport in Brazil? to benefit perhaps 20-30 athletes who would dispute the maximum of 10 available positions every 4 years, and the rest? and the academies that exist today and have become the careers 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 like these that we have now 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 of martial arts, who are the well people in this Olympic project in other martial arts? which academies will survive 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 what 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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