This article about Adele Fornarino becoming the first ever Australian world champion is part of our ADCC 2024 coverage. To get live results, play by play, and commentary, we’ll have a live updates article running all weekend.
Adele Fornarino has just made history by becoming the very first Australian ADCC world champion after a thrilling performance at ADCC 2024. Not only was it a monumental moment for an entire country of elite grapplers, but it was also big for female grapplers around the world as well. ADCC made the decision to add a third weight class for the first time in almost two decades and Fornarino was competing in one of the new divisions. She entered the under 55kg division at ADCC 2024 and became the first woman to win a title in that weight class since the only other time it was contested in 2007.
Fornarino was already an ADCC veteran, having made her debut in the old under 60kg division at ADCC 2022. After going out in the opening round to the eventual champion then, she had to earn the right to compete in this new weight class. That’s exactly what Fornarino did, as she won the ADCC Asia and Oceania Trials for the second time earlier this year. She was coming in to an incredibly tough division full of elite grapplers, so it was always going to be a difficult journey if she wanted to go all the way to the top of the podium.
She ended up with one of the toughest draws of the whole tournament though, as she had to go to war with Mayssa Bastos in the opening round. Fornarino won that match by decision and secured her place in the lineup for the second day, which is where she really came into her own. Fornarino met Jasmine Rocha in the semi-final and it didn’t take long at all for her to spring into an armbar for the submission win. Feeling fresh after that match, she had to face Bianca Basilio in the final. Adele Fornarino made even shorter work of her, as she got one of the quickest submissions of ADCC 2024 to finish her run and become the first ever Australian world champion.
ADCC shared the footage of Adele Fornarino becoming the first ever Australian world champion at ADCC 2024 in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
