Mark Zuckerberg won medals in a jiu jitsu tournament

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Among his more recent endeavors is Brazilian jiu jitsu, a form of martial arts that uses methods of grappling and ground fighting. And Zuckerberg not only trains in the sport, but recently won a tournament. 

“Competed in my first jiu jitsu tournament and won some medals for the Guerrilla Jiu Jitsu team,” Zuckerberg posted on Facebook on Saturday, following a competition in Redwood City, California. 

The billionaire reportedly took up jiu jitsu during the pandemic, when much of the world was in lockdown. In a 2022 podcast episode of the “Joe Rogan Experience,” Zuckerberg said that he found the sport “primal” and that it improved his energy levels, as well as his ability to focus at work.  

“Getting to see @zuck compete was pretty epic,” Khai Wu, one of Zuckerberg’s trainers, wrote in an Instagram post about the recent tournament. “No match was easy and everything was earned. It was an honor to be able to help coach and offer any advice I could.”

Other veterans praised Zuckerberg, too. Irish UFC fighter Conor McGregor commented on the post saying: “Yo!!! F***ing awesome Mark.”

The 38-year-old CEO of Meta has previously taken up many new skills, often as part of his annual challenges (jiu jitsu was not one of them). In the past, he has made New Year’s resolutions to visit all 50 states in the U.S., learn Mandarin, and only eat meat from animals that he kills himself. In 2019, his goal was to have more public discussion on how technology will be used in society.

“I’m going to put myself out there more than I’ve been comfortable with and engage more in some of these debates about the future, the tradeoffs we face, and where we want to go,” Zuckerberg wrote in a post in early 2019, announcing his next mission. At the time, Meta was facing growing scrutiny over its privacy regulations and had been called to testify before lawmakers for it. 

But in 2020, Zuckerberg decided he wouldn’t make any more public New Year resolutions, and would instead work on thinking about more long-term goals. 

“Rather than having year-to-year challenges, I’ve tried to think about what I hope the world and my life will look in 2030 so I can make sure I’m focusing on those things,” the Meta CEO wrote in a Facebook post at the time.

Meta is currently going through a self-imposed “year of efficiency.” The company has conducted mass layoffs impacting tens of thousands of employees, and is also in the process of implementing artificial intelligence features into its platforms as “A.I. agents” as it continues to invest in its metaverse.   
The tech company reported $28.65 billion in revenues and 2.04 billion daily active users for the first three months of 2023, beating analyst estimates on nearly all metrics.