Misrepresenation by the press

["Peter A. Harmer" <pharmer@willamette.edu>]

Following the widespread coverage of the press conference recently held 
by the chairman of the Sumo Kyokai especially the issue of rikishi being 
"too fat" I would like to provide the following information for the 
group. I recently spoke with David Shapiro, who many know from his 
writing in Sumo World etc, who was the chairman's translator for this 
press conference. David commented that the coverage was a prime example 
of the press' consistent failure to choose accuracy over sensationalism. 
If you read the stories carefully, the statements are directed to the 
"young wrestlers" and the press then extrapolates to the upper ranks. 
This was not the chairman's focus, that is, his concern was that lower 
ranks were not able to keep up with training because of their condition. 
It was not directed to the juryo or makunouchi riskishi. In addition, 
David notes that Sakaigawa never used the word "fat". David will provide 
a fuller text in the article he is preparing for the next issue of Sumo 
World.

On a related note: the conclusions that have been pressed forward on this 
issue of increase weight and increased injuries are examples of very poor 
sports medicine thinking. Fundamentally, most people seem to make the 
common mistake that correlation is the same as causation, and secondly, 
aberrations in injury rates are common in all sports and a long-term 
epidemiological analysis is needed to determine whether there is a true 
trend in the injury characteristics that are prevelaent at the moment or 
whether it is an unusual blip in the data. As part of my research on sumo 
during the past year I was suprised to find that there are actually very 
few data available on injuries (even at the clinic at the Kokugikan) so 
our understanding of underlying mechanisms is limited. A few researcher 
such as Masasuke Kuwamori at Meiji University and Masamitsu Tsuchiya (who 
has a clinic close to the Kokugikan) have provided some understanding 
but, as in the rest of the world, Japanese sports governing bodies 
(including the Kyokai) don't assign a high priority to epidemiology in their 
area and we are left guessing about the extent and causal factors in 
injury and illness in particular athlete populations.

Peter A. Harmer, Ph.D., ATC-R
Exercise Science - Sports Medicine
Willamette University
Salem, OR  97301
USA
(w) (503) 370-6470
(fax) (503) 370-6379