Adele Fornarino

Adele Fornarino was born on September 17, 1999, in Melbourne, Australia. A naturally athletic child, she gravitated toward team sports early, beginning competitive football (soccer) at age seven and continuing until she was fourteen. That decade on the pitch built the discipline and competitive instincts that would later define her grappling career.

In 2009, at ten years old, Fornarino added jiu-jitsu to her weekly routine while still playing soccer. Her first instructors — David Hart, David Christopher, and Lincoln Handcock — were coaches affiliated with Dominance MMA who would remain central to her development for years to come. Rather than choosing one sport over the other, she ran both in parallel until, at fourteen, she made a deliberate decision to step away from football and channel her full athletic energy into grappling.

By sixteen, Fornarino had begun testing herself on the international competition circuit, traveling abroad to measure her progress against the world's best. Those early forays introduced her to a broad network of teams and coaches, establishing a habit of cross-training she would maintain throughout her career. The exposure she gathered during this period gave her the foundation to consider building a life around jiu-jitsu — a commitment she made official at eighteen, transitioning to a full-time training schedule.

Fornarino's climb through the belt ranks unfolded under the steady guidance of David Hart, David Christopher, and Lincoln Handcock. Early signs of her competitive ceiling emerged at the juvenile level, where she claimed gold at the IBJJF World Championship as a blue belt in 2016 — a result that signaled her trajectory long before she reached the senior divisions.

A Brown Belt Career Built Across Continents

Her brown belt years, spanning nearly four years between roughly 2019 and late 2022, became the defining chapter of her pre-black belt career. Competing across multiple continents, she assembled a formidable collection of titles: the IBJJF Pan Pacific Championship and IBJJF Pan Pacific Championship No-Gi in 2019, the AJP Australia National Pro in 2019, the AJP Oceania Continental Pro in 2020, and the IBJJF European Open No-Gi in 2022. She also earned silver at the 2019 IBJJF Pan Championship and the 2019 IBJJF Asian Open, demonstrating consistent performance at the highest levels of international competition.

The 2022 Breakthrough

The defining moment of her brown belt campaign arrived in 2022, when Fornarino won the IBJJF World Championship No-Gi title — an announcement to the world that she had arrived as one of the foremost athletes in the featherweight and light-featherweight divisions. That same year, she secured her spot at the ADCC World Championship by winning the Oceania & Asia Trials, further validating her place on the global stage. Her ongoing habit of training with various teams and coaches while abroad continued to sharpen her technical perspective throughout this period.

In December 2022, David Hart promoted Fornarino to black belt, formally recognizing a brown belt campaign that had elevated her into the conversation among the sport's elite lightweights.

The ADCC 2024 World Championship represented both the pinnacle of Fornarino's competitive career to that point and a landmark moment in Australian grappling history. Competing in the Under 55 kg division, she navigated the bracket to claim the divisional gold — then returned to the mats for the Female Absolute (open class) and won gold a second time on the same day.

The double gold made Fornarino the first Australian athlete ever to win the ADCC World Championship and the first to capture the open class title. André Galvão cornered her throughout the tournament, reflecting her working relationship with the Atos organization. The victories cemented her reputation as one of the premier lightweights on the planet and marked a generational achievement for Australian jiu-jitsu.

A Methodical Path to the Top

Fornarino's path to the 2024 event was built with patience and consistency. She qualified for ADCC on two separate occasions via the Oceania & Asia Trials — first in 2022 and again in 2023 — demonstrating sustained dominance in the regional qualifying circuit before delivering her historic performance on the world stage.

Fornarino entered the black belt division in late 2022 following her December promotion and wasted little time asserting herself among the sport's top competitors. In 2023, she delivered one of her strongest performances on the IBJJF circuit, winning gold at the 2023 IBJJF Pan Championship and gold at the 2023 IBJJF European Championship No-Gi. Silver finishes at the 2023 IBJJF World Championship No-Gi and the 2023 CBJJ Brazilian Nationals rounded out a debut year at black belt defined by consistent presence across multiple major organizations.

Expanding Into Submission-Only Formats

Beyond the IBJJF circuit, Fornarino extended her reach into submission-only and professional grappling formats. She claimed the WNO Strawweight Championship, and as of December 2024 held recognition as the reigning titleholder. On December 16, 2024, she appeared on JitsCast episode seven alongside her coach Jake O'Driscoll, a profile that reflected her growing visibility within the global grappling community.

Her black belt career has been defined by a willingness to compete across formats and organizations — IBJJF, ADCC, WNO, and Polaris — building a body of work that spans both points-based and submission-only competition at the elite level.

On December 15, 2025, Fornarino signed an exclusive European contract with Polaris, opening a significant new chapter in her professional career. She made her promotional debut at Polaris 35, held on January 31, 2026, at the Ebbw Vale Sports Centre in the United Kingdom. Facing Selma Vik, Fornarino controlled the opening round, winning it 10–9 on all three judges' scorecards before finishing the match in the second round with a Rear Naked Choke submission.

Speaking Out on Athlete Welfare

The performance drew attention, but it was what followed that resonated more broadly across the grappling community. In her post-fight speech, Fornarino addressed what she described as a crisis within jiu-jitsu — one rooted in hierarchical power structures and the abuse of vulnerable athletes. She called on the community to embrace collective accountability and to prioritize the protection of those most at risk within grappling organizations.

Her remarks came amid reports of an early-2026 exodus from Atos following a rumored incident, though no official statement from the organization had been issued at the time. Fornarino's own affiliation status with Atos remained unclear in that period; Dominance MMA remained her listed team. The speech positioned her as one of the more outspoken voices in professional grappling on questions of athlete welfare and institutional responsibility.

Fornarino's competitive calendar for 2026 reflects the ambition of an athlete operating at the height of her powers. She announced plans to compete in the inaugural female ADCC Superfight Championship in 2026, an event that places her among the sport's top names in a high-profile submission-only format. Her Polaris contract, signed in December 2025, commits her to further bouts for the promotion beyond her January debut, extending her presence on the European grappling stage.

Looking further ahead, Fornarino has expressed interest in transitioning to MMA. As of March 2025, she stated clearly that she intends to accomplish her remaining goals in jiu-jitsu before making that move. She competes around bantamweight — 57 kg / 125 lbs — as of early 2026, and continues to operate out of Australia while maintaining an active international schedule.

Fornarino has used her platform to engage with cultural and ethical questions within Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu that extend well beyond competition results. She has publicly shared guidance for men training with women in BJJ, emphasizing respect, awareness, and mutual understanding during training sessions — contributions aimed at fostering a more inclusive and supportive environment at the grassroots level of the sport.

Her post-fight speech at Polaris 35 on January 31, 2026, demonstrated a willingness to confront systemic concerns directly and in public, calling out power imbalances and advocating for protections for athletes in vulnerable positions within grappling organizations. That willingness to speak on high-profile stages places her among a generation of elite competitors increasingly vocal about the culture and ethics governing how the sport operates. Her voice in these conversations adds a dimension to her public profile that stands alongside her considerable accomplishments on the mat.