The teams representing Brazil and USA at Polaris 20 are slowly growing, and both have now got one more athlete competing in the under 95kg section of their respective teams.
First up is ADCC veteran Jon ‘Thor’ Blank who will be joining USA team captain and fellow Tenth Planet competitor Richie ‘Boogieman’ Martinez. Blank impressed at ADCC 2019 when he narrowly missed out on a podium position after losing to Craig Jones in the semi-final and being edged out on points by Josh Hinger in the battle for bronze. He has already flown the American flag on the Polaris mats once before, coming up against Dan Strauss twice at the third Polaris Squads event and drawing both times against him.
Opposite Blank on Team Brazil is the young Mica Galvao, who will be making his Polaris debut at the event. The exciting eighteen year-old has been a phenomenon over the past few years and his rise to the top has been virtually unstoppable. He is no stranger to elite competition despite his age and already owns victories over the likes of Oliver Taza, Espen Mathiesen, and Dante Leon. His crowning achievement has come just recently as he managed to submit every single opponent he faced at the ADCC South American trials and book his place as one of the youngest competitors at ADCC 2022.
