Martial Arts World News Magazine - Volume 22 | Issue 1

OLYMPICS COVERAGE
The Future of Martial Arts
in the Olympics
The future of Martial Arts in the Olympics looks very bright. Martial arts was one of
the very first sports to become a part of the Olympic Games, dating back to Ancient
Greece where wrestling was a part of the event.
Today, there are 3 traditional martial arts sports in the Olympics,
including karate, taekwondo, and judo. However, we are
happy to say that more martial arts disciplines will be added to the
Olympic Games.
The International Olympic Committee recently announced that
they will be including jiu-jitsu in the 2024 Olympics, and that’s a
huge step forward. The inclusion of jiu-jitsu in the Olympics has
been in the works for years, as they debated what set of rules to
follow and who would be the director of the event so the sport can
have a smooth transition.
Finally, it was decided that Carlos Gracie Jr., Carlos Gracie’s
grandson, will be at the head of the IBJJF and Gracie Barra will
oversee the inclusion of the sport into the Olympics. They will
use current IBJJF no-gi rules and they will make a few modifications,
but they will make sure jiu-jitsu is treated with the respect it
deserves.
They say it will be similar to Combat Jiu-Jitsu but there won’t be
any low kicks. The sport will be identified as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu or
Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, so the term American Jiu-Jitsu will not be allowed
seeing as the style was brought by Brazilians to America.
It’s truly exciting to see that another martial arts sport will be
added to the Olympics because it has been long overdue. These
sports deserve recognition and we are happy to see it happen.
Karate only just made its debut at the Tokyo 2020 Games and
there was a lot more at stake than a medal, but the future of the
sport as an Olympic discipline. Initially, karate was rejected for the
Tokyo 2020 Games until they introduced a provision that allows
host nations to propose sports that haven’t been recognized by
the IOC just yet.
This is how karate made the cut for Tokyo 2021, a historic moment
for the sport, and we got to enjoy an exciting event. It was
one of the 4 new sports that were introduced at the Tokyo Olympics,
which made it that much more special.
In better news, the 138th International Olympic Committee
session approved kickboxing, sambo, and Muay Thai. It doesn’t
guarantee these martial arts sports will be included in Paris 2024,
but it’s a huge step in the right direction.
Realistically, we can expect these sports to be included in the
2028 Olympics because we don’t think that the federations will
make the deadline for Paris 2024.
As you can imagine, these inclusions have motivated the International
Mixed Martial Arts federation to gain the IOC’s recognition.
That’s a big goal, but who knows? Perhaps we’ll see some of our
favorite MMA fighters in the Olympics a lot sooner than we think.
MARTIAL ARTS WORLD NEWS VOLUME 22 | ISSUE 1 25