News for Sambo

This year, the 51st “Mr. Olympia” was held in Las Vegas from 17 to 20 September, as always it brought together numerous participants and spectators. For the fifth consecutive year, Phil Heath has been named Mr. Olympia, who took home a record $400,000 for the victory.

Today «Mr. Olympia» Festival is the most important and debated bodybuilding competition in the world, held under the auspices of the International Federation of Bodybuilding (IFBB). The absolute rule is that the first six athletes at Olympia is the top six athletes in the world and the winner of the tournament is the strongest among them, even if this year he neither participated in any other competitions or won them.

The first tournament was held September 18, 1965 and was set up with the purpose to give the winners of the competitions a new impetus to further development, which relevance was under question since the rules of the international federations forbade the champions of the competitions, held under the auspices of those federations, to participate in the tournaments they had previously won. “Mr. Olympia” became the very event, bringing together the best of the best, namely, the athletes who took prizes in the competitions such as “Mr. America”, “Mr. World” and “Mr. Universe.”

But the format of the festival is not limited to the bodybuilding competitions. To the attention of the spectators during all days of the tournament as part of the expo program, the competitions 'among' the different sports, such as wrestling, taekwondo, boxing, jiu-jitsu, grappling, karate, kickboxing, kung fu and for the second time Sambo, are held. And there is no mistake, exactly 'among'. The organizers have adopted the concept of world-renowned SportAccord World Combat Games, when the representatives of different martial arts have the opportunity to test their strength in fights with their colleagues from other combat sports. This doesn't mean that a samboist and a karateka fight on the mat using their sports fighting techniques. Not at all, before the competition those wishing to participate in a particular sports tournament should learn its technique and rules and strictly abide by them during the fight!

The initiators of the inclusion of Sambo in the program of the festival were Joe Neely (SOMBOJOE) and Tokey Hill, Board members of the Organizing Committee of the Festival, who supported the “Mr. Olympia 2015 Sambo Tournament” held September 19, 2015.

Although Sambo is a relatively newcomer to the event, however, it has arouses the keen interest of spectators and participants, each time attracting more attention. Sambo is a sport, born in the Soviet Union and traditionally is the most widespread on the former soviet territory and popularized in other countries mostly by its activists and fans.Among them there is the American Amateur Sambo Federation (AASF) in the United States under the leadership of Jack Kogan and David Rudman, which remains the largest and rapidly growing in the country and which members represented Sambo and participated in the Mr. Olympia Sambo Tournament both this year and the past one. The biggest teams were brought by its four clubs: by three from California «Dynamo Sports Club» (head coach – Boris Brezhnev), «Jovany Varela BJJ and SAMBO Academy» (head coach – Jovany Valera), «Bay Area Combat SAMBO» (head coach – Rob Terlizzi) and by the club «SAMBO 7» (head coach – Andrei Popadopoulo) from Boston.

The organizing committee of the tournament provides each sport in the expo program with a separate sports ground, and the task of the organizers-representatives of each martial art is to ensure the conduct of the competitions from A to Z. So, this year AASF took over in full this mission by providing well-qualified refereeing at the Sambo competitions. Vitaly Zaslavsky, AASF General secretary, was the Chief Referee of the tournament: «Our federation was represented by several teams coming from the East and West coasts of the United States. It was a great honour and a great pleasure to be part of such an event and allowed us to not only participate and meet other athletes from different clubs but also to promote our Sport of SAMBO to many participants competing in other events as well as spectators… After all, the popularization of Sambo is not just the development of the sport, but the introduction of the Russian culture and our spirit to the Americans as well! ”

All participants got a lot of emotions and impressions. Rob Terlizzi, head coach of the «Bay Area Combat SAMBO» club in San Francisco, shares his impressions on his blog: «A group of students between the ages of 24 and 36 who have ZERO Sambo Tournament experience, most of them with less than 1 year of exposure/training in Sambo (some never did martial arts before Sambo), found the time, heart and will to train for the Mr Olympia Sambo Tournament…After 5 months of preparation, building fundamentals, working concepts and strategy, the day of the event hit. Our team was great! … The competitors were all top notch individuals who fought with honor and respect. The coordinators, who were fighting an uphill battle the entire time, pulled off a fun and safe event. By the end of the day, team members were talking to people across team lines, and that “Sambo brotherhood” was in full effect».

Joe Neely, a member of the Mr. Olympia Organizing Committee, commented on the last Sambo tournament: ” A great time was had by all. We had people from seven different states, and five different countries. The tournament was a great success due to the cooperation of different factions of our sport working together. I would like to give a special thanks to Boris Brezhnev, and Vitaly Zaslavsky from the AASF for all their help. Without the help of these two individuals from the AASF, Duran, and me would have had a rough way to go. I would also like to extend a big thank you to all the athletes, and coaches for their participation, and great sportsmanship displayed throughout the competition. We had many very exciting matches during the tournament, including a great female match between Virginia Lam, from California, and Laddy Meja-a, from Peru. We had to overcome a few major problems at this great event, but it turned out great due to the understanding everyone involved. We are now putting our sights on the 2016 Arnold in Columbus, OH. Looking forward to seeing everyone there.”