The International Olympic Committee this week announced the addition of five new sports to the program for the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
Baseball and softball will continue their run of being in-again and out-again, while lacrosse and cricket are returning to the Olympics for the first time in 120 and 128 years, respectively.
New to the program are squash and flag football.
Breakdancing (called breaking in competition), which is set to make its debut in Paris next year, has been dropped for the 2028 edition.
Seeing recreational activities such as breakdancing and skateboarding — which grew out of youth culture over the past few decades — reach Olympic-medal level, while one of the world’s oldest sports remains on the outside looking in, has to be galling for those involved in international sumo.
In fact, with sumo being dropped from the next edition of the World Games following the chaos that took place in Alabama last year, it’s arguable that the amateur version of Japan’s national sport is further away from Olympic inclusion than at any point since the International Sumo Federation (IFS) was formed in 1992.
For that to change, sumo would be wise to follow the example set by one of the Olympics’ newest entrants — flag football.
As incongruous as it may seem at first glance, the sport could offer amateur sumo the best path for Olympic inclusion in the future.
American football and sumo not only share similarities in terms of action on the field of play, but also have organizational and structural commonalities.
Both are lorded over by a single-country professional organization that dominates the conversation to such a degree that it is virtually synonymous with the sport.
The two also have longstanding, if tiny, presences on an amateur level around the globe, with world championships that got underway in the 1990s.
Funding struggles, lack of numbers and difficulty in growing the sport — particularly among women and children — have long bedeviled organizations in both sports at those levels.
In response, the International Federation of American Football has pivoted over the past few years, and focused its attention on a more accessible version of the sport, while also working with the NFL to ensure that version’s growth.
If a sport based on blocking and tackling — and famous both for its violence and the armor needed to mitigate that violence — can create a safer version that is playable by all ages and genders, then amateur sumo has no excuse for not putting serious effort into coming up with a form of its sport that would improve chances of getting into the Olympic Games.
As to what that would involve, there are all manner of areas which could be tweaked or changed — but safety and presentation immediately come to mind.
Flag football’s growth has been driven by parents who both want their children to enjoy the sport they grew up loving and understanding the dangers — both immediate and long-term — of impacts to the head. Flag football is a noncontact version that retains gridiron’s complex strategy and highlight-reel action elements, but at a scale virtually everyone can enjoy, and without the need to purchase expensive equipment.
Amateur sumo has already instituted rule changes that make it less dangerous than its professional progenitor, but there is still room for improvement — particularly if a spinoff version akin to flag football is to be created.
Codifying and standardizing beach sumo, making its tachiai a standing start and removing tsuppari to eliminate contact of any sort to the head is an avenue with potential that sumo authorities could explore.
Doing away with the need for special rings and making sumo something that could be enjoyed on any beach or sandy area would massively lower the expense and preparation time as well.
Keeping the mawashi — or at least some kind of grabbable belt — is essential, but all participants should be allowed to wear clothing underneath, whether a leotard or T-shirt and shorts.
Like it or not, sumo has an image problem among the general public. The barrier to getting people to try or even watch the sport is high, because of its lack of clothing combined with the sheer bulk of the athletes.
Sumo’s international image has improved enormously over the past few years, thanks to the greater exposure and drop in sensationalized coverage that social media has facilitated.
Even so, allowing potential participants — particularly children and those in countries with different social mores — to remain fully clothed would remove an obstacle to participation that still remains for most.
Of course, such notions are anathema to many, particularly those for whom the elements of sumo that set it apart from other sports are the very reason they love it.
Because of that, it’s essential to hammer home the idea that any new version of the sport isn’t trying to replace ōzumo, or even amateur sumo, but instead create a new and wholly separate path to participation and fandom.
Flag football, once a punchline for those involved in pro football, had stars such as Peyton Manning, Russell Wilson and George Kittle gushing about the LA 2028 decision in yesterday’s NFL announcement video.
Other NFL stars, as well as top-level football players in Japan, posted about wanting to take up the sport in the wake of the announcement.
For sumo, the target should be the same: A future JSA video about beach sumo, or some other version of the sport, with top rikishi enthusiastic and excited about its inclusion in the Olympics.
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