Oscar Niemeyer was a proud Jiu-Jitsu practitioner in his youth. Publicity photo.
Last night, the artist, architect and through-and-through communist Oscar Niemeyer passed away after a brilliant 104 years of life. Oscar had mentioned his passion for Jiu-Jitsu on a number of occasions, like in the interview below taken by the reporter Ana Hissa.
“Ours was a good group. We had lessons with Helio, George, Carlos… I really enjoyed that environment. Jiu-Jitsu helped us to get exercise. They were really funny… One day I met up with Helio Gracie at his house in Teresopolis, and when I got there I found him up in an enormous tree. He said going up and down trees was good exercise. It was a really great, almost fraternal atmosphere. The classes were fun and did us plenty of good. I recommend them!” said the brilliant architect in an interview from a 2009 episode of Brazilian martial arts show Sensei Sportv.
Check out what the late genius’ complete statement at minute 2:15.
