La Grande's Weston Simonis, third from left, of La Grande, poses for a photo after receiving a bronze medal during the Traditional Jujitsu World Championship in London in August 2023.

LA GRANDE — Weston Simonis is racking up the medals.

Less than a year after winning three gold medals at the United World Sports Kempo Federation tournament in Budapest, Hungary, the 39-year-old La Grande native captured two silvers and a bronze in August as a member of Team USA at the Traditional Jujitsu World Championship in London.

Simonis competed for three days despite injuring himself in the first competition and gutting through before finally having to withdraw.

“I hyperextended my big toe and it made moving difficult so I had to be selective in what I was competing in,” he said.

He began his run competing in sport jujitsu — like mixed martial arts with more protection around head strikes — where he took the bronze.

Competitors fight wearing a gi, or uniform, and are grouped together by weight class, not skill level.

Simonis fell to black belt Curtis Dodge and Bellator cage fighting veteran Michael Brian Cutting, but rebounded to take third at 82 kilograms (180 pounds).

Simonis would take silver in gi grappling, falling to Cutting in the gold medal match despite sustaining a cut to his head during a previous match.

It flared up in the final causing a delay as officials had to stop the bleeding.

“I was going up against some very good fighters and really good competition,” said Simonis, a Brazilian jujitsu blue belt. “I was facing black belts and I was even able to beat some purple belts.”

He also took silver in the team self-defense demonstration of various techniques. Team USA also brought home gold in the team fight competition as injury forced Simonis to withdraw, but his replacement won his match.

Simonis said he was pleased with his results and praised coaches Carla and Richard Bunch for creating a strong environment around the team while it competed.

Now his focus will turn to the Jujitsu International Federation in Uruguay in 2024 with an eye on qualifying for the World Games.

It is an expensive sport, in large part because of the travel to compete, and Simonis is looking to find sponsors to help cover some of that cost.

Simonis, who is working on attaining his Brazilian jujitsu purple belt, got his start in martial arts close to three decades ago, a journey that led to him achieving the rank of black belt in 2012 and being an instructor since then.

He first trained at the Grande Ronde Karate School under Ken Johnson in the mid-1990s.

He later moved to Portland in about 2010, spending roughly five years there before returning to La Grande, where he is now the head jujitsu instructor at Grande Ronde Fitness.