Russian Alan Grekov is only four years old. He lives in New Moscow and goes to the sambo section.
Alan not only plays sports, but also loves to cook with his mother in the kitchen.
His parents maintain a social media account, where they talk about the boy’s life and post videos of his training.
The videos of the young sambo fighter unexpectedly went viral in Germany, where Alan had already received the nickname “fighting boy.”
But Grekov Jr. caught the attention of mainstream German media. Thus, Bild sports columnist Carlo Ortmann described Alan as “a giant of sport, although small.” On the other hand, Ortmann paid attention to the popularity of sambo in Russia, calling it a “Russian-Soviet martial art.”
In fact, sambo is first a Soviet form and only since 1966 an international form of sport and applied combat. It was developed in the 1920s-1930s by Vasily Oshchepkov, Viktor Spiridonov and Anatoly Kharlampiev. In 2021, the International Olympic Committee recognized sambo as an Olympic sport.