Starting as a small section of a comprehensive school, it became a military club to a children's and youth sports school.

Since then, Hollywood actors, heads of state, scientists and athletes have visited the revered institution.

Only 13 people reportedly attended the first training session in 1970 but today about 16,000 children study at Sambo-70, engaging in a total of 26 sports including the one it is named after.

The institution combines education with sports, with teachers noting that children who played sports were more serious about their studies and were "more confident and smarter than their peers.

Due to the institution, more sambo clubs began to open in factories, housing offices, schools, red corners – small areas dedicated to the-then Communist regime – and other places.

Inter-club tournaments were formed when more than 600 children became known members of sambo clubs.

In those 50 years, Sambo-70 has produced more than 1,100 masters of sports.

The International Sambo Federation offered its congratulations to the school, wishing future development and prosperity.

Sambo-70 now caters for multiple sports including figure skating.