Mark Zuckerberg Corrects Reports of Jiu-Jitsu Knockout

Rumors of his snoring have been greatly exaggerated, apparently

Mark Zuckerberg
Andrew Ross Sorkin and Mark Zuckerberg on stage at the 2022 New York Times DealBook on November 30, 2022.
Thos Robinson/Getty Images for The New York Times

When he’s not running Meta, Mark Zuckerberg has been running, period — and also using Brazilian jiu-jitsu as a way to stay in shape. It’s led to him getting an impressive time when running a 5K — but there’s one potential downside with taking part in sports in which you fight an opponent, such as Brazilian jiu-jitsu: sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.

That was one of the takeaways from a recent New York Times report on Zuckerberg’s approach to fitness, which included a description of Zuckerberg’s first competitive bout. The article cited referee José Lucas Costa da Silva telling the Times that he had heard Zuckerberg snoring, suggesting that he had been knocked out after being put in a chokehold.

As Insider reports, Zuckerberg took umbrage with that description. On Saturday morning, Joe Bernstein — the Times reporter who had written the original article — posted an update on Twitter. “After publishing our story, I heard from both Mark Zuckerberg and his Brazilian jujitsu coach. They both insisted that Mr. Zuckerberg had not lost consciousness, and the coach said that the referee had mistaken his effortful grunting for snores,” Bernstein wrote.

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It’s worth mentioning that the rest of the article includes approving quotes about Zuckerberg’s performance in his first tournament — and he certainly seems to be getting positive results out of the experience, both in terms of his overall fitness and in terms of his specific activities. That said, “effortful grunting” does seem to have entered the lexicon as a result of this whole situation, if a recent and informal survey of Twitter is any indication.

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