One of the representative figures of martial arts in Mâcon, Giorgio Caputo, 75 years old, will no longer give classes. In his 50 years of sporting activity, he taught thousands of children and adults not only judo, but also self-defense and chanbara (fencing of Japanese origin).
Giorgio Caputo arrived in Mâcon in 1968 from a small Italian village in Puglia, he was 19 years old. And it was in France that he discovered judo.
He will progress until he obtains black belt 2e dan. Anyone who worked as an electrician at Areva-Alstom will then move on to volunteer coaching in Mâcon, Tournus, Cuisery, Montceau-les-Mines, Lugny, Bâgé-la-Ville, Dompierre-les-Ormes and will have his state certificate, by having his acquired knowledge validated, in 2006.
“My satisfaction was to see my students succeed”
In Bourg-en-Bresse, he discovered chanbara and, with his wife, Éliane, he built the foundations of the region’s first club in Mâcon, 16 years ago.
Students from Giorgio have represented Mâcon several times during the French judo championships, the French military championships, the French chanbara cup… Among them, Harold Nivarosa, double medalist at the European chanbara championships.
“I taught martial arts without being paid, 50 years for judo. My satisfaction was seeing my students succeed. But I decided to stop, because working with children these days is more and more difficult because of parents who consider me too strict. They want results for their children, but they must not be moved,” admits with bitterness the one we respectfully call “the professor”.
Giorgio Caputo will, in exchange, continue to work with people with disabilities at the Saugeraies adult cerebral palsy association where he has been working for three years.
