Women's sumo in the spotlight - 28th April 2023

If asked to imagine a sumo wrestler, most people would think of an enormous Asian man, with few clothes on. But these days, sumo wrestling's also popular with women, like Brazil's Luciana Watanabe.

Luciana Watanabe: "In the whole world, there are many women practising sumo in more than 80 countries. There are already four weight categories. I think we are expanding this. My idea is to break prejudices."

In Japan, where sumo originally comes from, women are still prevented from fighting professionally. For more than 1,500 years, sumo was linked to the Shinto religion. Believers traditionally thought women brought bad luck. It was against the rules for women to be spectators or to touch the wrestlers.

However, for the last two decades, there's been an international sumo championship for women. It's now hoped that sumo will reach Olympic status.

Diana Dall'Olio fell in love with sumo after first experiencing other types of wrestling.

Diana Dall'Olio: "It is tiring, but the wrestling is quick. I've done judo and jiu-jitsu, but they are slow. Sumo is very fast, like 10 seconds. That's very good."

Sumo was introduced to Brazil with the arrival of Japanese immigrants in the early 20th century. Nowadays, of Brazil's 600 sumo wrestlers, over half are actually women.

Wrestler Valeria Dall'Olio enjoys changing people's attitudes.

Valeria Dall'Olio: "There are preconceived ideas. Sometimes when I say I practise sumo, everyone looks at me thinking I should be fat, but amateur also has categories, and I fight in the medium category."

So if you still think of sumo wrestling as a sport for giant Asian men, it's time to think again.