Peruvian Coach Álvaro Riveros Gorriti Opens Judo Club in Nekala
Peruvian judo coach Álvaro Riveros Gorriti, 47, moved to Tampere with his family and opened a judo club in Nekala in June; a former Peruvian national team member, he has won three Finnish kata titles and now coaches at Kami Martial Arts Tampere.
Álvaro Riveros Gorriti, 47, moved to Tampere with his family and opened a judo club in Nekala in June after struggling to find stable work. Born in Lima, he contrasts life in Peru with quiet Tampere, recalling long traffic jams where drivers would honk for hours. "I miss that chaos," he says.
He began judo at 12 and later reached the Peruvian national team. Since moving to Finland he has won three Finnish national titles in kata. Now he focuses on professional coaching at Kami Martial Arts Tampere and wants to make judo a popular hobby across Finland, not just a sport for elite Olympic hopefuls.
Gorriti completed integration training at the Tampere Adult Education Centre in 2022, studied at Tredu and worked for a local moving company. Teaching by demonstration helps him overcome language hurdles while his wife teaches and their children settle into school, he told local paper Tamperelainen.
Catch the full story over at Tamperelainen
