If the phrase “sumo wrestler” calls to mind a hefty Asian man in a loincloth, Valeria and Diana Dall’Olio, a mother-daughter sumo wrestling team from Brazil, have a message: think again.
The Dall’Olios are used to people saying they are too small, too fragile or too female to practise a sport typically associated with hulking Japanese men.
But they say that is just fuel for their fighting spirit when they get in the dojo – the ring.
“There’s a lot of prejudice. When you say you practice sumo, some people think you have to be fat,” Valeria, 39, said, as she prepares for a competition at a public gym in Sao Paulo.
“Women are always under a microscope in the martial arts, because they’re sports that have generally been restricted to male fighters.”
She got into martial arts as a girl, learning judo and jiu-jitsu. In 2016, she fell in love with sumo, which was brought to Brazil by Japanese immigrants in the early 20th century.
Source -Aljazeera
