By Aaron Ramos

Next year, the biggest sporting event in the world arrives in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. At London 2012, viewership in the hosting country broke all
national records. In the United States too, 219.4 million people tuned in, making it the largest television event in US media history. It truly is a giant
among athletic competitions, consistently dwarfing every other world championship ever held. The best and brightest young talent in dozens of sports compete for that that elusive gold medal. Often the difference between winning and losing is minute; a hundredth of a second, a few hundred grams, even a single point. Now it’s Rio’s turn to play host.

Brazil is considered the spiritual home of modern Jiu-Jitsu. Ever since Mitsuo Maeda introduced Japanese style to the Gracie family, it has been the home of champion after champion. As we move into the New Year, it’s clear to see the sport gaining immense popularity worldwide. Perhaps it’s high time Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was finally featured on the largest stage for competitive sport. It’s happened before, with Tae Kwon Do famously being introduced as a demonstration sport in Seoul Korea, 1988. It’s now an established sport, so why not the same for Jiu-Jitsu? Unfortunately the list of hurdles the gentle art must overcome are quite extensive. Would it even benefit the sport? No doubt it would bring it more attention. However, a great deal of growth seems necessary before then if this is to become a reality.


The first, and probably greatest of these issues revolve around ownership and the concept of a unifying federation. IBJJF for example is owned by one small group. Contrary to what many people believe it is not the unifying body for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, simply the largest. The situation is also similar with the Arab owned ADCC.  One overarching federation above them all would be required for BJJ to qualify as an Olympic sport. This is highly unlikely, however, as neither of these groups
would want to relinquish either control or profits to another Olympic committee. Something else to note is that there is also no unified rule set for all of Jiu-Jitsu. In fact, this is not necessarily a bad thing. One of the most interesting things about BJJ is the different competition formats. All that competitive variation would be lost under a new, global federation.

Once you solve the issue of a unified federation, you must take into consideration an anti-doping program too. Sports at the highest levels are plagued by the use of performance enhancing drugs. Taking steps to mitigate these problems is absolutely necessary to keep the sport clean and fair for a competition as prominent as the Olympics. The IBJJF has recently taken some initial steps towards testing its athletes with the help of the USADA. Currently these tests are only randomised however, with ten black belt competitors being chosen for each round of testing. ADCC on the other hand, simply doesn’t test at all. This is an incredibly expensive practice though. With Jiu-Jitsu already being an expensive sport to train and compete in, that cost could potentially trickle down to the competitor level.

On the subject of money it’s worth mentioning sponsorship and the impact that has on the revenue fighters take home. There is already very little money in being a Jiu-Jitsu athlete. When a competitor obtains a sponsor it’s a godsend to their quality of life. It is something that enables them to pay for equipment, supplements, training, travel, even food and drink on many occasions. This would be an element you would have to completely strip from the Olympic version of BJJ, a move that would directly impact overall fighter pay. Even in the current climate, it’s well documented that competitors are constantly bemoaning the fact that medals alone simply aren’t enough to get by. I can’t imagine further financial decreases would be very enticing to the current crop of champions we have, let alone the lower tier of fighters who earn even less.

Then there are the purely practical elements of bringing Jiu-Jitsu to the masses. As of 2007, the International Olympic Committee put in place a new system in which each Summer Games would include 25 core sports with three additional floating sports rotated into each Olympics on a timetable. It’s worth noting, for example, that in 2009 golf and rugby were voted to be included as new sports, with kitesurfing now replacing windsurfing at the Rio 2016 Olympics.

For BJJ to be included, either a core sport would need to be dropped, or it would need to be included as one of these new floating sports. These are both highly unlikely for the near future, however. For a core sport to be dropped, there needs to be some serious fundamental reason such as a drug scandal (possible but not probable), or massive drop in a sport’s popularity. As for the floating sports, there is already a timetable in place for the next few subsequent Olympics.

To qualify, a new sport must meet a number of set criteria. Appeal to the audience firstly is obviously essential, not only to adults but also to the youth. While this is something Jiu-Jitsu already has on its side, attractiveness for TV, gender equality and rule complexity are all already struggles we have within the sport itself. Subjectivity within Jiu-Jitsu is one of its greatest strengths. Some of us love guard players and berimbolos, others prefer takedowns and the top game. Perhaps its inherent diversity is also to blame for some of the difficulty it faces finding wider public acceptance. When a basketball perfectly flies through the net or a runner races first through the finish line, it’s a lot harder to argue with than a referee’s decision to ad penalties or points. Would yet another wider rule change help the visual pull of BJJ? Chances are that most of us probably wouldn’t even want that.

Sadly many sports have suffered a watering down and become almost entirely about point scoring once moved to the Olympic stage. The aforementioned Tae Kwon Do is almost unrecognisable in its Olympic form next to the more practical full contact version. In the world of Judo, many practitioners feel that becoming an Olympic sport was the death of it. Yes it gained notoriety, but the art suffered from a huge amount of dilution in an effort to please the viewers. Can you imagine a version of Jiu Jitsu that revolved even more around point scoring? Entire events such as Metamoris or Polaris have been created to do away with the points altogether! Also, let’s not forget that wrestling itself was almost cut out entirely, despite its position as one of the oldest Olympic events in existence. Is there even an appetite for more grappling sports on the Olympic stage yet?

One of the main reasons anyone watches a sport is its favorites. Those characters like who transcend their chosen fields into popular culture like Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps or Carl Lewis. Likewise, Jiu-Jitsu has dozens of its own famous faces within the sport. Sadly another problem is that we would have none of our biggest stars competing. As of 2012, boxing and wrestling no longer allowed professionals to compete, both combat sports. It’s highly likely that Jiu Jitsu would fall under the same category. The disparity between hobbyists and professionals in the sport as it is today is enormous.


Perhaps it’s a case of cultural differences? In typical western culture, it’s quite unusual to uproot your whole life and chase your dreams in another country. It could be this attitude adopted by the Brazilian competitors that sees them so dominant in the sport. The upper levels  are absolutely dominated by Brazilian athletes, and this may be in part to them completely forgoing most other aspects in their life in order to travel the world refining their craft. The South American domination of the sport is also another barrier in the way of Olympic inclusion.  

A sport or discipline may be included in the Olympic program if the International Olympic Committee determines that it is widely practiced around the world. For
example the requirements for winter sports are considerably lower than for summer sports since far fewer nations compete in winter sports. Obviously with the growth of the sport in recent years, there are competitions worldwide practically every week, but still nowhere near the level of sports like athletics or swimming. Before being accepted as an Olympic Sport, we’ll need a little more diversity on the podium.

So it seems the odds are stacked against Jiu-Jitsu becoming an Olympic sport any time soon. The illegitimacy of it may even be a blessing in disguise; as what we would gain in exposure we would lose in the essence of the sport. It is entirely possible that we could see grappling in some form entered into the Olympics one day though. Maybe some kind of hybrid style competition format where Jiu-Jitsu, Sambo, Wrestling, Luta Livre and others all have a home under one rule set. It’s possible, smaller organizations like NAGA already run highly successful shows of this nature worldwide. For now though, the growth of grappling sports is still exponential without Olympic attention. Not only that, but we are fortunate enough to have accessible champions competing right alongside our newest white belts on the mats. It’s just as inspiring and encouraging for the younger generations of competitors as an Olympic champion can be. There aren’t many sports that can claim the same, if any.