How #Sambotigers Celebrated Their Professional Holiday

Taking a picture with a tiger in sambo uniform, showing artistic abilities by wall-painting or participating in a sambo master class – on this day, Moscow's Muzeon Park visitors had plenty of opportunities to explore sambo.

Children immediately took a fancy to wall painting with the #sambotiger and together turned it from black and white into color. Contribution of each participant was appreciated
by souvenirs from FIAS.

The main aim of staging the International Tiger Day is to inform the general public about the problem of disappearance of tigers and how to protect them. Many related activities mark this day in various countries: themed exhibitions, TV shows, excursions to zoos, charity and educational campaigns, and much more.

A significant spot for photos was a cut-out depicting a tiger in sambo uniform. Not only was a huge number of photos taken, but there were also fun children's games under the general name of "Catch the sambo tiger's tale!"

But photos with the sambo mascot were the main aim of the celebration's guests. While the tiger regularly posed, despite the summer heat and hot sun, everyone was able to have their picture taken with him. If you see photos like this on social networks, you know where they come from.

The tiger became the official mascot of FIAS in 2015. At the same time, FIAS and Siberian Tiger Center signed a cooperation agreement. Now, full-size tigers dolls are present at all major international sambo competitions and sambo wrestlers take part in various activities at the Siberian Tiger Center. Sambo wrestlers also showed an exceptional demonstration program at Muzeon. The youngest sambo athletes demonstrated their skills first.

Then the baton went from the boys to their coaches, who showed not only beauty, but also the wit of sambo. The demonstration events with a humorous component were clearly to the liking of spectators.

After the demonstrations, they bowed in front of the audience.

After a heated presentation, spectators froze in anticipation of continued demonstration events. They did not have to wait long. Sambo athletes at first pleased the audience with sport sambo...

...and then combat sambo!

And if young athletes vividly demonstrated their sambo techniques, showing something clear and natural, the incredible acrobatics and rich technological arsenal of the sambo masters (or veterans) impressed guests to the celebration so much that some of them immediately announced a desire to enroll at a sambo class!

After an impressive warm up, there was an even more impressive performance. The masters had planned to show a consistent set of techniques, but they got so excited that they departed from the script and showed the most spectacular tricks without fatigue for several exciting minutes.

Impressed, the spectators hardly had time to catch their breath before they got to show their theoretical knowledge of sambo in a quiz. Starting with the question of when sambo celebrates its foundation day, it ended asking how many national federations are members of FIAS. The fastest and smartest received prizes from the International Sambo Federation.