The youngest son of Gastao and Cesalina Gracie's eight children, Helio was
always a very physically frail child. He would run up a flight of stairs and
have fainting spells. Nobody could figure out why. 
When he was about 14, he moved in with his older brothers who lived and
taught jiu-jitsu in a house in Botafogo, a borough of Rio de Janeiro. He
would spend the next few years limited to only watching his brothers teach
jiu-jitsu, especially Carlos, since doctors had recommended that they keep
Helio away from any physical activity due to his frail health
One day when he was 16 years old, a student showed up for class and Carlos
was not around. Helio, who had memorized all the moves and words of his older
brother, offered to start the class. When the class was over, Carlos showed
up very apologetic for his delay. The student answered, "No problem. I
enjoyed the class with Helio very much and, if you don't mind, I'd like to
continue with him." Carlos agreed and Helio became an instructor.
He soon realized that some of the techniques he had memorized from watching
Carlos teach were not very easy for him to execute. He then started to adapt
those moves to his frail body's abilities, improving the leverage in the
execution of some of those techniques. He dared to break away from the
traditional jiu-jitsu his brothers had learned and were teaching, and through
trial and error, Gracie Jiu-Jitsu was born.
Helio, the first sports hero in Brazilian history, fights include matches
against the world wrestling champion, Wladek Zbyszko. and a qualifying fight
against the #2 jiu-jitsu fighter in the world, Kato, who Helio choked
unconscious in 6 minutes. This victory enabled him to enter the ring for a
match against the world champion, Masahiko Kimura, who outweighed Helio by
over 80 pounds. Helio Gracie holds the record for the longest match in
history, a battle which lasted an amazing 3 hours and 40 minutes! He also
challenged boxing icons Primo Carnera, Joe Louis and Ezzard Charles.
As if that was not enough, he once jumped into shark infested waters in the
Atlantic Ocean to save a man's life.
Helio's tremendous impact on the art jiu-jitsu has caused the biggest
revolution in martial arts history.
