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From Moscow ’80 to the Russian national team, with lessons on the tatami at Vladimir Putin and honorary citizenship granted by the president himself: but now Ezio Gambagold medal in judo at the Moscow Olympics (when to participate he faced the difficult choice of leaving the Carabinieri) and silver in Los Angeles ’84, says he is ready to return to Italy to lead the Italian judo team.
Gamba, from Brescia, 65 years old, a true icon of his sport so much so that he entered the Judo Hall of Fame, has resigned as technical coordinator of the Russian national teams to run for the presidency of Fijlkam, the Italian Judo Wrestling Karate Martial Arts Federation, as learned by Ansa.
“I feel completely regenerated and ready for a new adventure,” Gamba says in a letter to Fijlkam circles, in which he speaks of his fight with the disease four years ago as “the most difficult test” and defines himself as “the right man” for the federation. The Judo Federation will go to the polls at the end of the Olympic four-year period, after an edition of the Games in chiaroscuro, with the light of the gold of Alice Bellandi embraced in Paris by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
The current president, Dominic Falconeis closing his second term and for him there would not be the obstacle (partial, at that) of the limit of three terms which is a cause of conflict between the president of Coni and the majority of the prime minister.
Already a legend in martial arts, in recent years Gamba’s fame has also been boosted by his choice to work in Russiawhere he moved in 2009 and where in 2016 he received citizenship for sporting merit from the hands of Vladimir Putin, of whom he was personal judo teacher. Under the guidance of the Italian Olympian, at the 2012 London Games the Russians won three Olympic gold medals on the tatami for the first time. Then, the war in Ukraine turned the spotlight on his presence in Russia. In 2022, he himself resigned as secretary general of the Eju, the European Judo Union.