Will BJJ Make It To The Olympics?

I'm pretty sure everybody will have an opinion on this particular subject. I'm sure all sports would like to see their sport make it into the Olympic Games, and BJJ is no different. It would pretty much be a dream come true to see BJJ be a part of the 2016 summer Olympics which are being held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the home of BJJ. The fact of the matter is BJJ is a LONG way from being considered to be an Olympic sport. I'm not saying in the future it might not, but the way it is currently, there is no real chance.  

Pretty much BJJ will be compared to Judo, and in all of these points for BJJ not being in the Olympics, the same cannot be said for Judo.

Now, there are lots of factors which result in BJJ not being an Olympic sport, but probably the main ones which stick out to me are:

·      There are not enough black belts internationally, and it is not popular enough worldwide - If you think about it, BJJ is probably one of the youngest sports in the world today. People only really started to get into Jiu-Jitsu after UFC 1 which was in 1993. But even after that it took a considerable while for it so become popular.

Realistically, the only countries at the moment which could even potentially create a high level Olympic team are Brazil, United States, and maybe Japan. At the moment, not a lot of countries produce enough black belts. If you go to the majority of countries in the world, there will be most probably be tons of Judo black belts, but how many of those countries have BJJ black belts? Quite a lot of countries don't have any black belts what so ever.

At many major BJJ competitions, the competitors are mainly from Brazil and the U.S.A. The Olympic Games are meant to showcase the very best athletes from around the world in their given sport, but you can't really do that with realistically only three countries. Most probably Brazil will win every single division available, but that might be slightly different in terms of the women's division.

I mean how many non-Brazilian black belt world champions has there been? Well so far only two, those being BJ Penn (2000) and Rafael Lovato Jr (2007). Obviously, as time progresses, the standards on non-Brazilian fighters will get better. If you look at the black belt division today you have very good non-Brazilian grapplers such as Keenan Cornelius, Gary Tonon, AJ Agazarm, DJ Jackson, Ryan Hall, James Puopolo etc.   

·       No single governing body - There are many different governing bodies across the world, but as of today the leading organization is obviously the IBJJF (International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation). Some other organizations include the UAEJJ, CBJJE, and the CBJJO.

Like I said previously, in the majority of circumstances, BJJ will mostly be compared to Judo, and Judo has the IJF (International Judo Federation) as their main governing body. At the moment, Judo is an Olympic sport, so I suppose it’s only kind of natural to look at them as an example. The IJF was actually founded in 1951, and as of today has produced over 200 separate federations all over the world. This is something that no BJJ organization can do at the moment as not enough countries worldwide practice BJJ.

·       No main set of rules - There are no set in stone complete set of rules for BJJ, they alter depending upon on the organization which is running the competitions. Although it must be said that the majority of BJJ tournaments are run under IBJJF rules, there are numerous different organizations which create their own unique set of scoring systems. 

I would probably say those are the main three factors for BJJ not becoming an Olympic sport, but some other factors include:

·       Not a spectator sport - Now obviously I'm not talking about BJJ practitioners, we will always find it interesting, but to non-BJJ practitioners might find it boring to watch. This is probably because they don't understand what's happening in the match, and to be honest the current situation of the double guard pull doesn't really help this. 

·        Lack of female competitors - Again, the women's division is forever growing, but compared to the male division it is very small. It's only recently that they put women brown and black belts in separate divisions.

·        Limited media coverage - The significant majority of BJJ events are only broadcast over the internet. However, some BJJ events can be seen on TV channels in Brazil, and the WPJJC can also be viewed on TV in Abu Dhabi.

·       It's too similar to Judo and Wrestling - Actually I was quite surprised to hear that wresting struggles to keep both of its variants (Greco-Roman and Freestyle) in the Olympics, so what are the chances of introducing another grappling based art. I think as well the general public would see it as too close to Judo.  

·      The judging and refereeing standard is not consistent - It seems like in BJJ there is always some problem with decisions, bad calls etc. Even at the highest level of competition the refereeing standards are mixed and are not always at a high standard. At this point the match between Roger Gracie and Jacare sticks out in my mind, as this is probably one of the most controversial matches ever. Obviously, things have come a long way since then, and the IBJJF are always trying to improve the issue of 'dodgy' referring.

Those are the things that stick out in my mind as being factors for BJJ not making it to the Olympics, well at least for now anyway. I'm pretty sure there are other things you could say which could contribute to it not being in the Olympics also, but to me those are the things that mostly stick out. I guess the main thing that can solve all of these things is simply time. Our sport is fairly new compared to all the other martial arts out there, so naturally it’s going to take time for it to significantly develop in all fields.

I'm pretty sure everybody will have some sort of opinion on this subject, and this is simply just my opinion, so don't take it too seriously!

I would be interested in hearing some of your guy’s opinions on the subject, so feel free to comment.

I hope you guys enjoyed this article!

Catch you later,

Giordano