14 September 2008

Sarkozy To Get Judo Lessons from Putin

[From Reuters] Sat 13 Sep 2008, 9:47 GMT.
PARIS (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, a champion judoka, could soon be flooring France's Nicolas Sarkozy with some of his famous throws after agreeing to pass on some of his black belt skills to the French president.

"He (Sarkozy) is interested in martial arts and we have decided to do some training together," Putin was quoted as saying in an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro published on Saturday.

A press officer at Sarkozy's office had no immediate comment.

The 55-year-old Putin's prowess in the martial art of judo is well documented and videos of him wearing his black belt and throwing opponents to the ground are easy to find on the Internet.

Sarkozy, 53, was not previously known to have an interest in martial arts. He has often been photographed jogging.

(Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

2 comments:

  1. I will try and confirm this as I am currently in Paris and would like to practise Judo with Sarkozy as well.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kong suggests you exploit the influence and reach of your employer and see if you can't really make it so.

    ReplyDelete