LONG BEACH – Sliding her feet pressed flat into the mat, sumo gold medalist Jenelle Hamilton held her palms open to the sky.
She thrust her open hands upward as she squatted low, tackling an invisible opponent.
Hamilton was one of several sumo wrestlers at Cal State Long Beach last week who gave a dozen or so local college wrestlers a taste of sumo training. The event was just a preview of what’s to come, when the largest sumo competition in the United States takes place Sept. 20 at CSULB.
Hamilton doesn’t fit the Hollywood image of an overweight sumo pro. She’s trim and visibly muscular, but sumo isn’t all about one’s outward appearance. A huge aspect is mental readiness, the sumo wrestlers said.
“You have to be so focused,” said Andrew Freund, president of USA Sumo. “You have to be so strong and hard to blow through your opponent.”
Hamilton said the stigma of being overweight is unfairly associated with sumo wrestlers and is working against attracting American athletes, especially women, while the sport is picking up steam among martial artists in countries like Argentina, Brazil and those in Europe.
“There’s that stigma, ‘Who wants to see big fat people sweaty in diapers?’” Hamilton said. “I think it’s just the American idolization of what a body should look like.”
Contrary to popular opinion, sumo wrestlers have tremendous, well-developed muscles, Hamilton said.
“They might have some fat on them, but these are some of the strongest men you’ll ever meet,” she said.
When the U.S. Sumo Open comes to town next month, champion wrestlers from around the globe will converge on the Walter Pyramid in more than 100 seconds-long matches. Between 50 and 60 competitors are coming from countries including New Zealand, Mongolia, Brazil and Egypt, and even one CSULB student will compete in the tournament.
Since the US Sumo Open began in 2001, it has been held in Southern California each year, but this is its first time in Long Beach. Freund said he thinks sumo will have a more permanent place at CSULB.
“This is the absolute best venue I’ve found in terms of it being really neat, really clean,” said Freund, who has organized the US Sumo Open since its inception.
The competition comes as sumo is getting a foothold outside Japan and is vying for a place in the Olympics, which is one reason the International Sumo Federation has been working to attract more women to the sport.
On Aug. 21, Hamilton and Freund taught some of the sumo techniques meant to foil an opponent. Get low. Use your head to push an opponent out of the circle. Take hold of the mawashi, the belt worn by wrestlers, and use it to your advantage. Weight doesn’t determine who wins.
After trying sumo, Long Beach City College student and club wrestler Paul Murchie, 18, found some similarities between the two sports – an opponent’s size doesn’t necessarily guarantee their victory.
“While size is a big factor, the little person with good body positioning and technique can take down the bigger person,” Murchie said after a match.
CSULB student Michael Greenberg, 26, also came from a wrestling background and said one of the main differences was the attire. Where wrestling uses a slick, form-fitting get-up, the mawashi is a little more restrictive.
“It’s like wearing a canvas thong,” Greenberg said. “Doesn’t feel great. A little unpleasant.”
A select few decided to take on the nearly 600-pound former professional sumo star Yama, who for years competed in Japan but now lives in downtown Los Angeles. Like Hamilton, Yama visited the campus to bolster interest in the sport among young people, he said through translator Chihiro Sakuta, who is affiliated with USA Sumo.
“We’re trying to get it to be more popular,” Hamilton said. “Getting younger and smaller athletes is really what the focus is on.”
Contact the writer: 562-243-3419 or lwilliams@lbregister.com
