Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has added another string to his bow after winning gold and silver medals in his first ever jiu-jitsu tournament.
The 38-year-old tech billionaire competed on Saturday in Redwood City, California, for the Guerrilla jiu-jitsu team, with which he trains.
He shared the impressive news with his 11.3 million Instagram followers along with photos of him posing with his coaches and tussling with opponents on the ground.
“Competed in my first jiu-jitsu tournament and won some medals 🥇🥈 for the Guerrilla jiu-jitsu team. Thanks to @davecamarillo @khaiwu @intense0ne for training me!” Zuckerberg captioned the post.
The pictures also showed Zuckerberg wearing a pair of shorts gifted to him by mixed martial arts champion Alexander Volkanovski.
Professional fighter, Khai “the Shadow” Wu, who is also one of Zuckerberg’s coaches, was among the many well-known fighters congratulating him in the comments.
“Yesterday getting to see Zuck compete was pretty epic. No match was easy and everything was earned. It was an honour to be able to help coach and offer any advice I could,” he said.
Former UFC champion Conor McGregor wrote, “Yo!!! F***ing awesome Mark”, while five-time world jiu-jitsu champion, Brazilian Bernardo Faria, said: “Amazing!!! Half guard, arm-bars, triangle! Super cool!”
American television host Mario Lopez also commented with three fire emojis.
Zuckerberg replied to several of the comments, including a hands-raised emoji to the fighter Gabriel Marangoni, who had posted: “Honoured to ref your matches. Warrior.”
The Guerrilla Jiu-Jitsu Academy, where Zuckerberg’s coaches Dave Camarillo and James Terry work, is based in San Jose and offers training programmes ranging from “youth fundamentals” to “adult advanced” for those looking to compete in the sport.
Brazilian jiu-jitsu is becoming increasingly popular among the celebrity circuit, with some having done it for years, including comedian and activist Russell Brand, comedian and podcaster Joe Rogan and actor Tom Hardy.