There's maybe no task harder to accomplish for gi grapplers than the IBJJF Grand Slam. Every year there will be only a handful of people even capable of winning at that level and then to actually go execute it is another thing entirely. 

The IBJJF Grand Slam is the collection of four major gi tournaments throughout the season, composed of;

• The European Championships, usually in Lisbon, Portugal
• The Pan Championships, usually in Florida, USA
• The Brazilian National Championships, usually in Sao Paulo, Brazil
• The World Championships, always in Long Beach, California at the Pyramid

Winning each of these four tournaments qualifies you as a Grand Slam champion, which is so hard to achieve that only nine people have ever done it at the black belt level (eight in the gi, one in no-gi). You have to go to Europe and face the best there. You have to go to North America and face the best there. Then down to Brazil. Then it all culminates in the Pyramid for Worlds where that grueling schedule really wears down athletes and tests them to their core.

The Nine Current Athletes To Grand Slam At Black Belt

• Mica Galvao, 2024 (also won Super Grand Slam)
• Gabi Pessanha, 2022-2024 (weight and absolute)
• Mayssa Bastos, 2022
• Lucas Pinheiro, 2022 (no-gi)
• Tainan Dalpra, 2021
• Claudia do Val, 2018
• Lucas Barbosa, 2018
• Rubens Charles, 2017 (also won Super Grand Slam)
• Rafael Lovato Jr., 2007

In 2024, we had two athletes win the Grand Slam - Gabi Pessanha and Mica Galvao. Mica combined those four golds with an ADCC World Championship to win the even rarer 'Super Grand Slam' that only Rubens Charles had done before, and Gabi continued her run of dominance by winning a double grand slam (weight and absolute) for the third year in a row.

The die is already cast for who can win the Grand Slam in 2025 because we are already through Euros. Who can get it done? We know that Tainan Dalpra at men's middleweight, Diogo Reis at men's light-feather, and Gabi Pessanha at women's super-heavy have all expressed interest in Grand Slamming and all three certainly have the skill to accomplish this (Tainan and Gabi have done it before as black belts, Diogo did as a colored belt). Another interesting candidate would be Adam Wardzinski, who is entering Brazilian nationals this year for the first time ever.

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Also in the mix to Grand Slam could be Mayssa Bastos, Diego Pato, Janaina Maia, and Melissa Stricker. While any European champion could potentially Grand Slam, we consider these grapplers to be the most likely to go that extra mile and write their names in the history books.

The first person to ever accomplish the Grand Slam was Rafael Lovato Jr., when the American did it in 2007. Back then they didn't even technically consider the accomplishment a "grand slam" as that framing came in later but he went through all four events and is now recognized as the trailblazer of the accomplishment.

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Of note, the IBJJF does technically count the Grand Slam in a slightly different way. In their records, the Grand Slam begins at the previous year Worlds and finishes at the Brazilian nationals (so they can honor the Grand Slam champions at the Pyramid). If you follow this, then only 5 athletes are still eligible: Gabi Pessanha, Diego Pato, Melissa Cueto, Adam Wardzinski, and Mayssa Bastos.

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