What passes for Sumo in the West ( rant )

Sorry, but when someone mentions my second-favorite sport ( behind Futbol ) I pay attention.

Sumo is not a sport for those who are obese. As with many sports, the body-type produced by training is a side-effect of the sports goals; in this case, pushing someone else out of the Dohyo. Greco-Roman wrestling is about grappling and pinning, so Olympic and Collegiate wrestlers tend to be small and wiry. Similarly Swimmers develop a different physique from Sprinters through their training. But Sumo's goals largely involve horizontal motion in contrast to Greco-Roman's vertical focus; therefore a low center of gravity combined with resistance to the application of force is a must. The net result is that Sumo wrestlers have grown larger since the origins of the sport as a religious rite.

Those who apprentice at a Sumo stable usually start at fairly average weight. The weight-gain and maintenance is a challenge that not all can overcome; especially since the champion Sumo Wrestler must maintain the flexibility of a gymnast and combine it with strength-training. While health-risks associated with being overweight ( diabetes and knee problems ) are common, it is also very common for the retired Wrestler to return to normal weight when they are no longer following the regimen required to maintain that weight.

What passes for Sumo in the West doesn't comprehend the culture nor the training which sustains the Sport in Japan. Since there are still religious ties to Shinto ritual in Japanese Sumo, no Woman may enter the ring. ( For this reason, there was a big stink when the Beatles played the Buddakan theatre; a sacralized space.)

Sumo is not about the individual. There is no guarantee that those who apprentice themselves to a Sumo stable will ever rise to the level of those who are allowed to wrestle professionally. Many go their entire careers in a stable without ever achieving that level.

The Western practitioner seems to be thinking in terms of free-agency and of sports, like basketball, which attract those with the physical requirements, rather than molding the physique to meet those requirements.

Samantha-Jane says she does not try to put on weight but concentrates on a balanced diet to keep her fit for the fight.

'I'm naturally a big girl. I don't have to eat anything extra.

'I have a medical condition that does not allow me to lose the weight. A side effect of that means I look obese. But I do have a healthy diet.'

All the ignorant jokes about Sumo in the West as a sport for the obese aren't going to be dashed as long as the culturally ignorant appropriate the name of Sumo for this purpose. And whatever this girl is doing, it sure ain't Sumo Wrestling for which her medical condition makes her unfit even without cultural assumptions about women participating in a men's-only Shinto rite.

Dante