Re: [General Sports]Re: The 100 Greatest

[Masumi Abe <abe@accesscom.com>]

Takanohana-I, or current Futagoyama Oyakata has never been in an Olympic
Games as an athlete.

When he was in middle school, he was a national champion swimmer in his
age group and an Olympic candidate for Japanesa national team.

Although his oldest brother Wakanohana-I told him don't even think about
becoming a rikishi, Mitsuru Hanada (Takanohana-I) decided to become his
brother's desciple at Futagoyama-beya.

He was treated very well (if it is not in sumo, the treatment could have
been interpreted as abusement, though) by his oldest brother and his
Shisho in front of his fellow rikishi, everyday.

Because (or In spite) of this type of training, he was promoted through
each of the divisions in hurry and became an Ozeke along with Wajima of
Nishonoseki-beya, who used to be a collegeate yokozuna and started at
Makushita.

Although Yokozuna Wajima was much better in Yusho and win-loss record,
Ozeki Takanohana was a clear winner between the two in terms of catching
the sumo fan's hearts. He might have been the most popular rikishi of
all time.

His sumo style is "never think of being lost untill the opponent name is
called as a winner." That was the reason why the bout he is involved had
never been dull.

Another popular rikishi from his time was Jesse Takamiyama. But Jesse
was only the second behind Takanohana-I.

-Toshiyori Masumiriki

Lukas Grossmann wrote:

> >Are you kidding? :) Takanohana I, Olympic swimmer as well as
> Ozeki?
>
> Olympic swimmer? What's this about? Please explain!
>
> Lukas

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