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Sumo faces a potential rift at the top of the ancient sport for the first time in more than 30 years after its sole yokozuna, Terunofuji, announced his retirement on Friday.
The Mongolia-born 33-year-old has struggled with injuries and withdrew from the ongoing New Year’s Grand Sumo tournament in Tokyo on Thursday after withdrawing from his fight.
He told reporters that he was retiring after a “tough 14 years” in the ring to train young wrestlers.
“I gave it my all, but in this tournament I wasn’t able to perform as well as I would have liked, and you shouldn’t enter the ring when your mind and body are half as strong,” he said .
“I feel like my body is not up to sumo, so I decided to retire.”
Terunofuji, who has won ten tournaments in his career, is the only active yokozuna in sumo.
Mongolian Hoshoryu has a chance to rise to the top rank if he impresses in the New Year tournament. After the first five days he had four wins and one loss.
If he fails, there will be no yokozuna in sumo for the first time since March 1993, when Hawaii-born Akebono made his debut at the rank.
“When I first became a yokozuna, I didn’t think I would be able to wrestle for long,” said Terunofuji, who was promoted to the top rank in July 2021.
“But the fans and other people supported me and encouraged me and that feeling alone kept me going.”
Since Hakuho’s retirement in September 2021, Terunofuji is the only yokozuna in sumo to have a record 45 tournament victories.
Terunofuji played in just two of six tournaments last year as he struggled with injuries and other health problems, including diabetes.
Since his promotion to yokozuna, he has missed all or part of 13 of 21 tournaments.
Terunofuji, who was born Gantulgyn Gan-Erdene in the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar, said he was looking forward to his new career as a stable master.
“I want to produce wrestlers who don’t lie, who don’t back down,” he said.
“These are the wrestlers who become strong.”
amk/sco
