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For many, on hearing the words "sumo wrestler", an image of a hefty, bare-skinned Asian man comes to mind.

However, sumo wrestling is quickly becoming a sport for women, like Luciana Watanabe, a big name in sumo in Brazil.

In Japan, the birthplace of sumo, women are still banned in the professional sport.

This is due to its strong ties to the Shinto religion, which lasted for 1500 years.

Women were traditionally seen as impure or bad luck and were once even forbidden to attend tournaments or have any physical contact with fighters.

2001 saw the launch of an international amateur women's sumo championship, and now organisers have high hopes that it may be recognised by the Olympics in future.

While amateur practitioner Diana Dall'Olio has experimented with other forms of wrestling, she favours sumo.

In Brazil, having been transported to the continent by Japanese immigrants in the early 1900s, over half of the 600 wrestlers are women.

Valeria Dall'Olio is one of them and she loves to break down people's prejudices.

It seems that nowadays the conventional image of a sumo wrestler is an outdated one, in more ways than one.

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