Sarah Galvão is the absolute champion of the 2026 Pan No-Gi and wins double gold

The Atos athlete beat Maria Vitória Ruffatto-Gilpin in the absolute final after winning the middleweight title; she won six matches in two days in New Jersey

Vitor Freitas October 4, 2026, 6:57 pm · 3 min read

Sarah Galvão is the middleweight and absolute champion at the 2026 Pan No-Gi. Photo: IBJJF

Sarah Galvão is the absolute champion of the 2026 Pan No-Gi. This Sunday (October 4) in Secaucus, New Jersey, the Atos athlete beat Maria Vitória Ruffatto-Gilpin (Canby Jiu-Jitsu) in the final of the absolute, the open division for athletes of all sizes. Earlier in the day she had already won the middleweight title, so she leaves the tournament with double gold. According to the IBJJF, the sport’s main federation, it is her first double gold in a no-gi tournament. No-gi is Jiu-Jitsu without the gi, the traditional uniform.

Six wins in two days

Her run started on Saturday (October 3) with four matches. In the absolute, Sarah opened the black belt day by submitting Sa’idah Durkee (Team Lloyd Irvin) and did the same against Julia Maele (OXY). In the semifinal, she beat Nadia Frankland (Corvus) in one of the most praised matches of the day. Still on Saturday, she beat Julia Maele again, this time in the middleweight bracket, and reached both finals.

On Sunday, Sarah came back for the two finals. First, she beat Nadia Frankland again and took the middleweight gold. A few hours later, she beat Maria Vitória Ruffatto-Gilpin in the absolute final.

Who she faced in the final

Maria Vitória reached the final after beating María José Ledesma (Daniri Jiu-Jitsu) and Martyna Kapuscinska (Academia Gorila), who became the medium-heavy champion on Sunday. Maria Vitória won bronze in the absolute at the 2026 World Championship and is confirmed in the super-heavy division of the Crown, an invitation-only IBJJF tournament in November.

A big day for the Galvão family

Sarah’s double gold came on the same day her father, André Galvão, returned to a competition podium. He is 44, and this was his first tournament since ADCC 2022. He took silver in the super-heavy division. The gold went to Natã Tenca, his student at Atos. Sarah, an ADCC silver medalist, leaves New Jersey with two gold medals. ADCC is the biggest no-gi grappling event in the world.