Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, December 11, 2024: The United Arab Emirates leads the Asian Games gold medal standings in jiu-jitsu simply because it had a jump-start over the rest of Asia according to Fahed Al-Shamsi, General Secretary of the UAE Jiu-jitsu Federation.
Jiu-jitsu has been on the medal programme at the last two Asian Games – 2022 Hangzhou and 2018 Jakarta and Palembang – and the UAE has won six gold medals, the most by any country.
“We invested in jiu-jitsu before any other country in Asia, more than 15 years ago, and the dividends are plain to see. We have won six gold medals across two Asian Games, and this has spurred further interest in the sport in the Emirates,” Fahed, who is also the General Secretary of the Jiu-Jitsu Asian Union, said.
The interest in the sport is helped by the fact that the President of the UAE Jiu-Jitsu Federation, HE Abdulmunem Alsayed Mohamed Al-Hashemi, is a black belt in the sport.
“There are more than 8,000 participants in schools, Police and Armed Forces. We have more than 1,000 black belt coaches too, and all this creates a healthy environment for the sport,” Al-Shamsi pointed out.
He added: “In schools across the Emirates, two PE sessions every week are dedicated to jiu-jitsu. This has created a large base of participants in the sport.”
The huge popularity of the sport in the Emirates made it a no-brainer for the local jiu-jitsu authorities to put their hands up when the Olympic Council of Asia was looking for a host for its first jiu-jitsu development camp for coaches and referees.