Sumo removed from World Games

[Inside Sport Japan 769]

Sumo has been removed from the World Games (Tier 2 Olympics) because of incidents involving wrestlers from Ukraine and Egypt - including former Maegashira Osunarashi - in Alabama last year.

 

 

[Chartorenji 243]

That's pretty sad, and really poor for the sport's international standing

[Bunbukuchagama 976]

What exactly happened in Alabama last year?

[Inside Sport Japan 769]

 

2 minutes ago, Bunbukuchagama said:

What exactly happened in Alabama last year?

Summary of the various things that went on

[Koorifuu 1,120]

Reading the ISF's finger-pointing statement, it seems that the conclusion they arrived to is that stricter, ozumo-like rules must be enforced so there's clarity on where it stands.

[sumojoann 1,271]

1 hour ago, Bunbukuchagama said:

What exactly happened in Alabama last year?

Here's a short video showing the Egyptian sumo coach's (former Maegashira Osunaarashi) reaction to the Egyptian winner having his medal taken away.  He himself got taken away ---------- by the police! 

 

[Seiyashi 4,109]

1 hour ago, Koorifuu said:

stricter, ozumo-like rules

I don't know what they're smoking.

[Yamanashi 4,078]

6 hours ago, Seiyashi said:

I don't know what they're smoking.

Well, the shenanigans involving Osunaarashi were shocking and embarrassing.  I'm not sure what rules would have prevented this, but the decision certainly is well-deserved.

[Asashosakari 20,250]

This sounds...implausible. A singular incident leading to an entire sport getting tossed from the event programme? 

[Bunbukuchagama 976]

58 minutes ago, Yamanashi said:

Well, the shenanigans involving Osunaarashi were shocking and embarrassing.  I'm not sure what rules would have prevented this, but the decision certainly is well-deserved.

Stuff like this happens regularly in Olympic wrestling as well as World championships etc. Somehow I don't remember any events being kicked out of the programme because of that. 

[Jakusotsu 6,394]

1 hour ago, Asashosakari said:

This sounds...implausible. A singular incident leading to an entire sport getting tossed from the event programme? 

You should well know that the only concern of the IOC is the plausibility of their finances.

[Flyric 94]

feels like a scapegoat for a straw that broke the camel's back. IOC wanting more popular / olympics-bound sports is my non-educated guess of their motivation. Hopefully the new guidelines from the ISF include a formal way to appeal disqualifications like the one that occurred with the Egyptian wrestler.

[Bunbukuchagama 976]

5 minutes ago, Flyric said:

IOC wanting more popular / olympics-bound sports

I assume it is whatever kids find cool nowadays - 50 new kinds of skateboarding? It's all about advertising money now, they stopped pretending to care...

[Asashosakari 20,250]

The IOC are very hands-off with the World Games / IWGA, can't imagine they had any input here. And while sumo is definitely not getting into the Olympics anytime soon, it always appeared to be one of the biggest audience draws at the World Games, which makes it even less likely that it's just about what happened in Birmingham last year, IMHO.

Anyway, the IFS will have to stage an extra World Championship in 2025 now, I guess.

Edited July 12, 2023 by Asashosakari

[Asashosakari 20,250]

https://www.theworldgames.org/editions/Chengdu-CHN-2025-14

Quote

30 sports have been chosen for The World Games 2025: Air Sports, Archery, Billiards Sports, Boules, Canoe, DanceSport, Finswimming, Fistball, Floorball, Flying Disc, Gymnastics, Beach Handball, Ju-Jitsu, Karate, Kickboxing, Korfball, Lacrosse, Life Saving, Muaythai, Orienteering, Powerlifting, Racquetball, Roller Sports, SAMBO, Softball, Sport Climbing, Squash, Tug of War, Waterski and Wakeboard and Wushu. 

That list has been on the page since at least June 2nd (archive.org), so sumo's exit must have been decided some time ago. Comparing it to the 2022 event, which featured 30 official sports and 4 invited by the local organizers:

in:
Sambo

out:
American (flag) football [2022 invitational]
Bowling
Duathlon [2022 invitational]
Sumo
Wheelchair rugby [2022 invitational]

Wushu moved up from invitational to official status.

Ah, the whole thing was announced on May 3rd, I see. The three ex-invitationals that didn't make the cut are on the shortlist for potentially another invited appearance, bowling and sumo are not.

[Sakura 1,524]

I like orienteering, but it's not exactly a good spectator sport.

[Asashosakari 20,250]

I can't help but notice that the two sports cut have one thing in common - they're contested by amateurs at the World Games, but a fully distinct, superior professional version exists. (The only bowling discipline in Birmingham last year was ten-pin, which of course has the PBA Tour.) Be interesting to see if snooker gets the heave-ho from the list of billiards disciplines, too, which would support that being a factor.

Edited July 13, 2023 by Asashosakari

[Inside Sport Japan 769]

Flag football is one of the world's fastest growing sports in all metrics and the NFL has started to put its weight behind it in a big way recently.

It's on course for inclusion in the Olympics in the not too distant future so whatever the actual reasons for both it and sumo being removed from the World Games, they are unlikely to include popularity

[Asashosakari 20,250]

I don't think flag football was removed so much as not auto-reinvited since there's just no mechanism for that. Remains to be seen if it still gets selected as an invitational discipline by the Chengdu organizers; outside of dragon boating (it's in the Asian Games) I don't see anything with particular appeal to them, but they're almost certainly going to have more than one, so who knows how that ends up going. But if flag football is among the sports that get added to the Olympic programme temporarily for Los Angeles 2028 (should be decided in a few months), it would make sense to have it in the World Games three years prior as well.

That aside, I doubt wushu would have got the upgrade to official status if the next World Games were being held anywhere else than China. I wouldn't bet on it retaining that status for 2029 if (as it looks) they're trying to keep the official programme limited to 30 sports. Sadly, if wushu or any other sport goes, I'd be more optimistic for some other sport taking that spot as a first-time official entry than I am for sumo getting back in.

Edited July 15, 2023 by Asashosakari

[Asashosakari 20,250]

FWIW, with the 2025 World Games in Chengdu soon to open (August 7), a Sponichi article has come out chronicling sumo's exclusion from the event and what has happened in international amateur sumo in the wake of that decision. It goes on to say that according to statements made by a director of the committee that oversees Japanese participation in the World Games, sumo is on track to be back in the next edition, 2029 in Karlsruhe, Germany. Approval has supposedly been obtained from the International World Games Association, the promoters of the World Games.

We'll see if that turns out to be true; it's notable that the claim isn't being attributed to somebody who would actually be involved with making that happen, i.e. members of the International Sumo Federation or the IWGA itself, or at least somebody from the Japan Sumo Federation as the domestic governing body of the sport. Supposedly the incidents in Birmingham in 2022 weren't the only reason sumo didn't make the cut for Chengdu; the local organizers in China are said to not have been particularly interested in pushing for its inclusion/return. I'm personally not convinced that this will be any different for the Karlsruhe organizing committee (the article says nothing about that), so a push towards returning sumo to the programme would likely have to happen at a higher level.

In any case, the article closes out with some pointless buttering-up of the amateur sumo scene by claiming that there's a "good chance" that sumo will join the Olympics proper "in the near future" (there obviously isn't), so the neutrality of the reporting may be questioned.

Edited July 19 by Asashosakari