Paty Lage
Address
São Paulo, Brazil
Phone
About Us
Patricia Lage was born on March 7, 1977, in São Paulo, Brazil, where she was born and raised. Patricia’s mother used to take her to Judo classes and watch her father (Roberto Lage) train. She was enthusiastic and wanted to mimic her father in the Japanese art, but she was told she could not because females were not allowed to train at the dojo. Patricia used to do swimming classes at the “Foquinha” academy in Sao Paulo, an academy that also had kids classes for Jiu-Jitsu, after seeing children practicing BJJ, Patricia asked her mother to sign her up which she did. The coach there was the legendary Otavio de Almeida, who also trained with Patricia’s father.
She continued training under master Otavio competing actively since the age of 4/5 years of age, having medalled in every age division there is in Jiu-Jitsu. Though she trained mainly under Almeida, it was her father that awarded her all her belts, including her black belt, a promotion that took place in between March 11 and 18, 1995, a few days after her 18th birthday.
Although often mentioned as the first female to earn a black belt in BJJ, at the time of her graduation, there were already at least two others training alongside Lage in her academy. She was, very possibly one of the very first to receive her CBJJ/IBJJF diploma, something she requested in order to compete at the Brazilian Nationals that same year.
