(red.) Ezio Gamba resigns as Secretary General of the EJU, the European Judo Union. The 63-year-old from Brescia, Olympic gold medal in Moscow 1980 and silver in Los Angeles 1984, has been the coordinator and coach of the men’s national team of Russia since 2009, a country that nominated him, in 2012, the best coach of the Olympic year, and which also awarded him the citizenship.
In recent days, Vladimir Putin had been dismissed after the military attack launched against Ukraine as honorary president of the world judo federation. In a statement, the IJF had explained that “in the light of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, the International Judo Federation announces the suspension of Vladimir Putin’s status as honorary president and ambassador”.
“I can’t accept standing still in front of you to the current tragic events ”Gamba declared. “I can’t continue acting like nothing is happening, but at the same time I can’t accept that the world of judo can be divided either.”
His office had been renewed just recently, on the occasion of the Ordinary Congress at the beginning of December in Istanbul.
The announcement of his resignation in a note from Federjudo continental, after the extraordinary meeting of the executive which was held on Tuesday afternoon, following the resignation of the president, the Russian Sergey Soloveychik, presented following the invasion of Ukraine.
Gamba became head of the Russian judo team in 2009bringing various medals (five in all, three of which gold) during the 2012 London Olympics. And his successes as a technician, in a sport practiced by Vladimir Putin himself, had led Gamba to obtain the 2016 Russian citizenship, in a ceremony held by Putin himself.
