Lethbridge Herald SportsTOKYO (AP) — For centuries, sumo’s deep links with the Shinto religion barred women from entering the ring, let alone allowing them to participate.
While women remain excluded from professional sumo, more than 600 now compete at the amateur level. The Associated Press documented some of them in training, including wrestlers preparing for the Sumo World Championships this weekend in Bangkok, Thailand.
Since 2016, girls from across Japan have traveled to Tottori Jōhoku High School, about 600 kilometers (370 miles) west of Tokyo, to attend weeklong training camps at the nation’s largest girls’ sumo club.
Participation has more than doubled in recent years, 24-year-old coach and alumna Nana Kakuda said.
Kakuda, who began wrestling in elementary school, remembers being unable to enter a nat
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