Far from the war, the Ukrainian sumo team has found refuge in Japan

To prepare for the 2022 World Games, which begin this weekend in the United States, what could be better than training in the country where sumo was born, in Soka. It has been the daily life of six Ukrainian wrestlers for the past month who train in a sumo school in Soka, near Tokyo and who will fly to Alabama on Tuesday where the World Games are taking place, a quadrennial event that brings together disciplines that are not on the Olympic programme. A few weeks ago they were in Kharkiv, bombed and attacked by Russia.

While the “rockets are falling everywhere in Ukraine”, for Ivanna Berezovska, one of the two women of this Ukrainian delegation, taking part in the World Games is a way of “(giving) a reason to be happy”. “And then give people back home something to celebrate,” she insists. If they do not have the status (or still the imposing size) of Japanese professional fighters, rikishi, considered as demi-gods, sumo wrestlers are particularly popular in Ukraine. There are about 3,000 in the country, making Ukraine one of the most successful nations since sumo first appeared at the World Games in 2005.

“Sport and politics should not mix”

There is even among the professional wrestlers in Japan, a Ukrainian, Sergey Sokolovsky known under the name of Shishi Masaru who belongs to the makushita division, the 3rd most important. For coach Liubov Korobko, winning medals at the World Games is “of great importance” in Ukraine. “We have a lot of sumo wrestlers competing, I think we can contribute and help improve the image of our country,” she continued. At the World Games, however, Ukrainians will not cross paths with Russian and Belarusian wrestlers, who are banned from participating.

But for Liubov Korobko, “sport and politics should not mix”. “I think a lot of athletes in Russia are against this war,” she said, adding that the Games would have been a good way to “express their desire for peace.”