Trym Leknes is one of the first competitively visible products of Drøbak BJJ, the academy Tor-Inge Gloppen founded on the Oslofjord in 2020. At a blue belt, he has already collected multiple Scandinavian tournament placements, including gold at the BJJ Scandinavia Open 2024 — the kind of result that signals the Drøbak room is producing real competitors rather than just recreational members.
The geography matters. Drøbak is a small town south of Oslo, and putting a junior on a Scandinavian podium at blue belt out of a five-year-old gym is the sort of outcome that justifies the existence of a small-town BJJ programme in the first place.
For the Drøbak academy, Leknes is part of the evidence — alongside the historic first-female blue belt Sylwia Kuzdro — that a small-town BJJ pipeline can hit the regional competition map within its first half-decade.