Sumo Sumo's health issues exposed by rising dropouts

This week, the Japan Sumo Association has been inundated with medical reports detailing various health issues among top-division wrestlers, including hyperhidrosis, bronchitis, arthropathy, osteoarthritis, and pharyngitis. While the growing number of absentees from the ongoing autumn regional tour has raised significant concerns, the sport's popularity remains undeterred.

Although withdrawals from regional tours are not unusual, the sheer scale of this year's dropouts, with nearly a quarter of the top tier out of action, is alarming. Despite the absence of several prominent stars, attendance figures for the tour's stops remain impressively high, with many arenas selling out. This situation presents a unique challenge for the JSA, which must balance prioritising wrestler health with the demands of maintaining the sport's popularity and financial viability.

The fact that sumo's main attractions are out of action for extended periods or unable to put their abilities on full display is a significant cause of concern, but far from the only one. Recruitment remains an ongoing issue in Japan's national sport. With a schedule so intense that injuries and illnesses are increasingly commonplace, it can be hard to convince potential wrestlers (or their parents) that joining professional sumo is right. Of course, none of this is new, and over the past couple of years, numerous articles and opinion pieces have focused on the expansion of jungyō and the strain it puts on wrestlers. That's part of a broader (and growing) awareness of the health challenges faced by sumo wrestlers among the media, the general public, and the sport's various governing bodies at amateur and professional levels.

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A BMI of 40-43 is considered advantageous for rikishi:



In 2021, three rikishi died of weight-associated illnesses:

In an interview with The Asahi Shimbun newspaper, Mikhakhanov said: "It's never easy to stay healthy as long as you are living the life of a sumo wrestler." "But you are the only person who can take care of you," he said. "Nobody in your sumo stable cares about you." The suggestion that wrestlers are being encouraged to bulk up even more than usual to be successful is supported by statistics which show that the average weight of a wrestler today is around 160 kilograms, an increase of 15 kilograms from 30 years ago. Similarly, today's wrestlers today have an average body mass index (BMI) of more than 47, even though someone with a BMI of 25 is considered overweight. "It is true that you cannot do training unless you eat, but there is no sense in ending up ill," Mikhakhanov said, adding that he had been deeply saddened by his colleague's death. He also called on other wrestlers to "place their own health ahead of everything else."

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