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Helio Gracie was born to Gastao Gracie and Cesalina Gracie in Belem do Para, Brazil in . The family had eight children, with five boys and three girls. Helio was the youngest boy, and distinctive for being slim and tall, while the rest were shorter and muscular. As a child, Helio was frail, and forbidden from participating in sports because he would get dizzy from running or going up some stairs. After completing the second grade he convinced his mother to stop sending him to school, attributing it to his condition. When the Gracie family met with a precarious financial situation, they moved from Belem do Para to Rio de Janiero.Helio's oldest brother, Carlos Gracie, opened a Jujutsu academy in Rio de Janeiro in 1925. Carlos was taught Jujutsu, a martial art of Japanese origin, by Mitsuyo Maeda. A Japanese immigrant, Maeda gained a job with the help of Gracie's father, Gastao, in 1914. Carlos would bring brothers Oswaldo, Gastao, Helio, and George to help him operate the school.
Under the guidance of a protective Carlos, who was a trained doctor, Helio's health improved from "The Gracie Diet". The diet consisted of vegetables, raw foods, and consumption of combinations of foods at a set time. Helio understood Jujutsu from observing Carlos instructing in the gym. Once, Carlos was late for an appointment with a student and Helio, aged 16, taught the student. When Carlos arrived, the student requested to work with Helio thereafter, and Carlos agreed. Carlos learned that Helio was secretly sparring in Jujutsu and was adept at it, later becoming his main student. Due to his slim build and weaker disposition, Helio modified Carlos' Jujutsu techniques to make them easier to use, and that was the start of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ). Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a ground-based art which emphasized technique over power, with a philosophy of enabling its practitioner, despite size, to overcome larger opponents. BJJ was later called Gracie Jiu-Jitsu to prevent confusion with Japanese Jiu-Jitsu.
To spread the knowledge of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and prove its efficacy, Carlos Gracie and Hello Gracie would make challenges to opponents in other fight forms, creating the Gracie Challenge. There is a legend that Carlos and Hello once came home to find a robber. They challenged the robber to fight or go to jail. Supposedly the robber, after choosing to fight, shouted for jail after being beaten. Helio once got in trouble for attacking a well-known detractor, Manoel Rufino dos Santos. The man accused the Gracies of winning fights that were fixed. Helio broke his ribs and arms, resulting in a two-and-a-half year jail sentence being imposed. Brazil's President Getulio Vargas, whom liked Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, pardoned him. In his first purported ring bout in 1932, Gracie quickly defeated boxer Antonio Portugal by arm-bar. To refute an article about the supremacy of boxing, Gracie challenged boxers Ezzard Charles, Primo Carnera, and he offered another boxer, Joe Louis, $16,000 to fight him. Gracie also proposed fighting five boxers in the same night. He fought American wrestler Fred Ebert and Wladek Zbyszko which ended in draws.
With the family's growing reputation, one group in particular challenged the Gracies by wanting Japanese fighter Masahiko Kimura to come to Brazil. Helio was eager to fight Kimura, but Kimura was hesitant because he weighed much more and felt the older and smaller man was not on his level. Helio would have to fight two of Kimura's protégés first. An injured Helio fought Kado to a draw. In the rematch, Helio choked Kado unconscious within six minutes. Kimura's other student, Yamaguchi, declined to fight, so Kimura accepted Gracie's challenge. At "The World Championship of Jiu-jitsu" on October 23, 1951, they fought for thirteen minutes at Brazil's Maracana Stadium. A worried Carlos Gracie had agreed to allow Helio to fight Kimura after making him promise to give up the bout if his health was at risk.Kimura snapped Helio's arm and he refused to submit. Carlos threw in a towel and Kimura won. Helio would later say that he was briefly unconscious when Kimura had applied a choke earlier.On May 24, 1957, Hello fought a former student named Waldemar Santana. They fought for three hours and forty minutes at the Brazilian headquarters of YMCA. The fight ended when Santana slammed Gracie to the ground and knocked him out with kicks to his head. Helio Gracie continued studying and practicing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for rest of his life. Rorion Gracie credits him for producing the popular TV show "Vale Tudo on TV". Per 'Relson Gracie,' Helio also produced "Herois do Ringue" ("Heroes of the Ring"). In 1967, Gracie helped established the Federation of Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil, which organized jiu-jitsu competitions. Gracie left the organization out a feeling that the Jiu-Jitsu taught focused on sports instead of real life self-defense scenarios. During UFC 1: The Beginning (1993), Helio Gracie was honored as the first Ultimate Fighter. He had nine children: Rorion Gracie, Relson Gracie, Rickson Gracie, Rolker Gracie, Royler Gracie, Royce Gracie, Rherika Gracie, Robin Gracie, and Ricci Gracie.
