Aubrey Formica his now a two-time gold medal winner at an international Brazilian jiu-jitsu competition. In September, the 31-year-old athlete from Cambridge, Ont. earned first place at the World Master International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation’s (IBJJF) championship. “It feels really good. All the hard work put in – you feel a little bit accomplished. It was worth everything,” Formica reflected. She won her first gold medal in 2025 while competing in the 30 to 35 year-old bracket for blue belt master featherweight division. Her 2026 win was in the purple belt master featherweight division. “It is truly an honour to be able to go there and say I am from just a small gym in Cambridge where we don’t produce massive world champions, or we don’t produce people that travel all over the world to compete. But it feels good to be able to say, this is where I came from. This is where I’ve learned everything, and make my coaches proud,” she said. Overcoming an ACL tear During her first win, Formica competed with an injury. “My ACL was completely torn. I had competed last year with it torn and I was playing very safe. My knee used to split a lot of the time if I’d stand up and cut side-to-side,” she said. “I ended up dislocating that leg [while] training. People said, ‘You’re not going to be able to do Worlds.’ And I was like, ‘I’m going to make it happen. I’m going to strengthen this leg. I’m going to make it happen. I’ll get surgery after.’” A week after her 2025 win, Formica underwent ACL reconstruction surgery. “I had just a year really to get back for this one. Right away people told me, ‘You’re not going to be back to sport for at least six to nine months, maybe the year, especially for competing right away,’” she said. But Formica’s drive to return and win kept her going. “I put in the work. I was back to training, I think, six weeks after. Very mildly. But then my first competition was about six to seven months after surgery, and I was able to win this year.” Plans for next year Fresh off her latest victory, Formica is already thinking about next year’s competition. “I was promoted to my brown belt on the podium after winning this year,” she said. “Yeah, we want to go. That’s our goal, is to go compete at the level and hopefully, again, bring back another gold.” Her coach, Kelvin Almeida is also the head instructor and co-owner at her gym, Cambridge BJJ. “Having somebody that you taught from zero to whatever the person is now, it’s amazing,” Almeida said. “Seeing her winning all these titles – last year was great. This year was even better because we were able to keep the title, basically.” Almeida has been training athletes for several years, and said Formica’s talent was obvious. “I’ve been training for 14 years. When I trained her, I feel like she had experience from years of training, but she only has been training for four years, right?” he said. “Her focus, her discipline on the mat, her attitude, her ways of training, questioning, all the time asking, trying to drill new things. Once she sees something new that she can add to her game, she spends hours trying to add that.” Formica is no stranger to sports discipline; she was an NCAA soccer player before falling in love with Brazilian jiu-jitsu on her 27th birthday. When she injured her leg and moved away for university, she felt like something was missing. “I was missing that piece of me that I had known my entire life, and just all of sudden, was taken away when I stopped [playing soccer]. Finding this gave me a purpose to train again, gave me something to go after. It allowed me to have that competitive edge that I’ve always wanted, but not have to rely on anyone else but myself,” she said. Formica now acts a coach at the gym, teaching children, a women’s program and a movement program focused on mobility. She believes she will be involved in Brazilian jiu-jitsu for the rest of her life. “When I become a parent, I want to make sure that my kids eventually will get into this,” Formica said. “But also, being a woman in this sport, I find it’s very important. Not only do I feel more confident, but I feel the self-defense aspect. Whether you’re doing the sport or just self-defense specifically, is incredibly important, especially being a female.” Formica plans to head to Worlds again while working her way toward a black belt.
