LOOK: Adorable Five-Year-Old Girl Wins Gold At World Jiu-Jitsu Event In UAE

They say that in sports, it's best to start them young.

That appears to be the case for a five-year-old girl from the Philippines who is making headlines after becoming the country's youngest-ever Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion.

Little Aleia Aielle Aguilar took home gold medal honors in the Kids' 1 Under-16KG event at the 2022 Abu Dhabi World Jiu Jitsu Festival in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates over the weekend.

She defeated hometown bet Maria El Halabi by points, 6-0, to advance to the finals. There, she submitted Brazil's Gabriela Vercosa to claim the top prize.

"I'm happy to be a world champion," the adorable Aielle said in an interview with ABS-CBN, a local media outfit in the Philippines. "I love jiu-jitsu because I like to do it, and I trained it for two years."

It's no surprise given that Aielle comes from a family of decorated and accomplished grapplers.

Her father is none other than Alvin Aguilar, the founder of the Universal Reality Combat Championships (URCC)—the Philippines' most popular mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion.

Aguilar is also a multiple-time jiu-jitsu champion, the Philippines' first-ever Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, and a well-respected practitioner of martial arts in the country.

Her mother and coach—Maybelline Masuda—is also a world champion in the sport, having won as a white belt at the 2009 World Jiu-Jitsu Championships.

She also has the distinction of being the Philippines' first homegrown female black belt.

"We're a Jiu-Jitsu family, so Aielle was born into it," Masuda shared in a translated interview with ABS-CBN. "Her dad is the first Filipino black belt in jiu-jitsu, and I've been training for a long time as well, so it was sort of like, it just became part of her life."

"Eventually, it was really something she wanted to do, because we own a gym in the Philippines, so we're there everyday since that's our livelihood, she's really exposed to jiu-jitsu. It's basically inevitable but it really came from her, that's why we are happy and proud that she was really interested in it and it's something she wanted to do," she continued.

Aielle's brothers Alonso Lucas and Andreas Lucho are also grapplers and have had their fair share of wins in big competitions.

The sport, as it would seem, truly runs in the family.

If Aielle can keep this up, it's highly likely that she wins even more gold medals as she grows older.