This article 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.
Three medallists from the most recent cycle of ADCC Trials have now been officially invited to ADCC 2024 despite not actually winning their invite. It’s not an uncommon practice, as there are a number of elite competitors in each weight class at ADCC Trials and often those who stand on the podium were just inches away from winning their division. ADCC Trials are also notoriously difficult tournaments and given that the majority of grapplers will only be eligible to compete in one each year, a poorly-timed injury or sole bad performance can be enough to lock someone out of the upcoming edition of ADCC.
The first of the ADCC Trials medallists invited to ADCC 2024 is Alex Enriquez and she actually won the ADCC North American East Coast Trials 2023. Unfortunately for her, women only win invites if they win the second edition of ADCC Trials in each location and she wasn’t able to repeat that success there. She took home a silver medal at the ADCC North American West Coast Trials 2024 and actually lost to the same woman she beat in the final in the previous year. Enriquez also happens to be the reigning IBJJF No Gi World Champion in her weight class so she’s clearly going to be a real threat in the under 55kg division.
The second of these recent batch of invites was given to Patrick Gaudio, who’s actually a multiple-time ADCC veteran already. He has been at the top of the sport for quite some time and most recently appeared in the under 99kg division at ADCC 2022, where he went out in the opening round. That was his second attempt after going 1-1 at the same weight in 2019, so Gaudio went back to the drawing board and took a run at the second South American Trials 2024. He finished with a bronze medal but put in a good enough performance to be given the invite to compete at under 99kg for the third time.
Andre Porfirio was also invited to compete at ADCC 2024, and he’s another bronze medalist from the South American Trials. He earned his in the under 88kg division of the first South American Trials 2024, and he returned a week later at the second edition to try again. His run ended in the semi-final again but he didn’t win the bronze medal match that time and settled for fourth instead. Having those two solid runs back-to-back clearly helped Porfirio’s cause though, as he will now be competing at under 88kg at ADCC 2024 regardless.
ADCC announced these latest ADCC 2024 invites that were given to Trials medallists in a series of posts to their official Instagram account:
