Sumo wrestlers throw weight behind Olympics

TOKYO, February 4

The world’s top sumo wrestlers will hold a tournament in August to support the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and Paralympics and showcase their sport to a global audience, the wrestlers and the Japanese Sumo Association (JSA) said today.

The sumo tournament will be on August 12-13, just days after the end of the Olympics and before the Paralympics begin on August 25.

The two current Grand Sumo Champions — ‘Yokozuna’ Kakuryu and Hakuho — attended today’s news conference to throw their considerable weight behind the Tokyo Olympics, which begin on July 24.

“We will try our best to introduce sumo to the global audience and show ‘omotenashi’, hospitality to them,” said Kakuryu, who was born in Mongolia, referring to Japan’s traditional approach to hospitality. Sumo wrestlers use only one name.

The JSA feels the tournament will win new fans for sumo from all over the world who have never seen Japan’s traditional wrestling. The sumo tournament will be held at the Ryogoku Kokugikan sumo arena — the same venue where US President Donald Trump awarded a special trophy last year. Sumo wrestling has never featured at the Olympics although the Tokyo-based International Sumo Federation aims to get it included one day. — Reuters