‘Sports changed my life & mindset’: Putin says parents were against him studying martial arts, but coach talked them around

Putin judo

Russian president and judo black belt holder, Vladimir Putin, said he would’ve been a different person without combat sports in his life, thanking his coach for fending off his parents’ attempts to put an end to his training.

“At some point, my parents started objecting [to] my active engagement in sports. They thought it was distracting me from school,” Putin said in a new Channel One documentary about his judo and Sambo coach, Anatoly Rakhlin.

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