While other intense contact sports such as rugby and American football have adopted new approaches to training and nutrition, Japan’s de facto national sport is anchored to tradition. If you want to be good you have to get big, and that can come at the expense of your health.” “The bigger and heavier you are the better you’ll be. “Some are extremely diligent about what they eat some aren’t,” says Gunning, whose weight doubled to 120kg within two years of making his debut in 2004. With hundreds of wrestlers divided into 45 stables, some are bound to let temptation get the better of them, according to John Gunning, a former amateur sumo wrestler who now commentates and writes about the sport in Japan. “Wrestlers in the highest makuuchi division weigh and average of 160.2kg – 15kg heavier than three decades ago, and have an average body mass index of more than 47, while medical professionals warn that a BMI of 30 or higher indicates obesity. Mikhakhanov was not alone in struggling to keep his eating habits in check. “Of course, you can’t train unless you eat, but there’s no point in making yourself ill,” he said. The 37-year-old has since swapped his two huge meals a day for five smaller meals, and regular walks and gym sessions have helped him shed more than 100kg. “Just walking or moving was really troublesome.” “I would lie down right after eating, which wasn’t good,” he told the newspaper. As a result, he suffered from hypertension and struggled to fight off fatigue.

Mikhakhanov would routinely polish off 200 pieces of sushi and a crate of beer, and found it impossible to refuse offers of extra bowls of rice from senior stablemates. In 2017, he became the heaviest professional rikishi ever at 288kg, beating the record previously held by the Hawaii-born Konishiki, who tipped the scales at 285kg. Weighing an already hefty 190kg when he turned professional, Mikhakhanov saw his weight increase to 292.6kg shortly before he retired. But Mikhakhanov, who retired in 2018, knows to his cost how pressure to pile on the pounds can tempt wrestlers into consuming more than the 4,000 calories they need to refuel after gruelling early-morning training sessions. The sumo diet staple chanko nabe – a stew packed with meat, fish and vegetables – is high in protein and low in fat. Doctors who treated the 28-year-old said he had several chronic health conditions. The dangers of a lifestyle that combines intense physicality and bulk-building food intake were underlined last month when Shobushi, a wrestler in one of the lower professional ranks, died from Covid-19. The Russian wrestler, who now uses his “civilian” name, Anatoly Mikhakhanov, said the sumo route to gaining weight – two gargantuan meals a day separated by an afternoon nap – was putting wrestlers’ health at risk.

Japanese sumo