Ezio Gamba

Ezio Gamba began judo alongside his brother Sergio at the Società Forza e Costanza of Brescia, coached by Mario Bernardini and later by Franco Cappelletti. Gamba eventually competed at four Olympic Games, winning gold in 1980 and a silver in 1984. He also won four medals at the Mediterranean Games, with golds in 1983 and 1987, a silver in 1979, and a bronze in 1975.

Gamba retired after the 1988 Seoul Olympics and became the coach of the Italian national judo team until 2004. He then became a technical manager with the African Federation of Martial Arts in Casablanca. In 2009 he moved to Russia, where he coached the national judo team. In 2010 he was named the European Coach of the Year. In the summer of 2013 he was inducted into the International Judo Hall of Fame and in 2015 he received the Collare d’Oro for sporting merits by the Italian Olympic committee.

In January 2016, in return for his coaching Russian judokas, Gamba received a Russian passport directly from Vladimir Putin. Gamba had helped train Putin, who was a well-known student of judo.