Rigan Machado, a 9th degree red belt and one of the pioneers who helped spread Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu across the United States, believes the sport’s biggest next step could be entry into the Olympic Games.
Here is what Machado had to say in a recent podcast:
I think it’s going to be fantastic. I love to see that happen.
But there could be some problems for other organizations, because it would bring government control into the sport, and that could be interesting.
I think the value of the World Championships could decline because everybody would want to compete in the Olympic Games, and that could become the main competition.
Machado doesn’t downplay the political resistance likely standing in the way, either:
I think it’s going to have a lot of difficulty, because the major organizations are going to try to block that because they make so much money on the events.
I don’t think they want to lose this control. Everything is about control, money, politics.
But I think it’s a genius idea. I hope one day they get to the Olympic games.
He pointed to the financial growth seen in no-gi competition as a model gi Jiu-Jitsu should aim to follow:
Jiu-Jitsu still hasn’t reached its pinnacle. I think it’s going to become a major professional sport.
For example, no-gi is creating a lot of money and paying athletes, and I would like to see the same thing happen on the gi side.
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