The Montreal Sumo Club wants you!
The Club showed off ahead of the International Sumo Championships on Oct. 17 and Oct. 18
Avant-Garde Artisans Brasseurs filled up to watch the Montreal Sumo Club in open practice on Oct. 4. Three club members, Lucas Aubé, Maxime Raymond and Nadia Cardin, are preparing to head to Baku, Azerbaijan, for the Sumo World Championships, where they will attempt to put Canada at the top of the sumo world.
As the room began to fill up, the rikishi, the formal term for sumo wrestlers, put on their massive traditional belts, known to them as mawashis. Many of them were still stretching and talking to each other, waiting for the event to begin.
Aubé took the time to demonstrate to the audience where sumo comes from historically and what its rules are.
“At the signal of 'Hakkiyoi!' the fight begins,” Aubé said. “At the end, both combatants bow, and the winner makes a sweep motion.”
Among all of the rikishi present, Aubé was among the quickest. He was the only one who, when “Hakkiyoi” was called, stepped around his opponent to surprise them.
The first couple of matches were clearly friendly, and the rikishi used their first few rounds to warm up their muscles. When someone was pushed out of the inner circle with too much force, they would catch one another. Nobody wanted to put in too much effort.
As more and more people arrived at the Avant-Garde, the rikishi’s competitive fires grew hotter and so did the intensity of the matches.
The rikishi made sure to stand near the bar and on the outside of the wrestling mat in order to prevent the 600-plus pounds of humans from crashing into the bar or the children watching excitedly in the front row. Another rikishi made sure to block the others from pushing each other into the bar as well.
With the increased competition, the rikishi gave it their all, no matter the size difference. Many were picked up clean off the ground and forced out of the dohyō, or training ring. It did not matter how large some of these athletes were; their teammates lifted them off their feet too. Iron truly does sharpen iron.
Maxime Raymond dominated the field almost without competition. Even the other rikishi who appeared larger than him could not do much and were quickly evicted from the dohyō.
Raymond explained how Canada can make a big statement in these World Championships because of the nature of sumo itself.
“It’s not like a game of hockey of 60 minutes where the better team will win out eventually, [...] I believe that maybe I won’t win a medal, but I believe I can win matches at this level,” Raymond said.
He encouraged all athletes of any age to give sumo a real chance.
“It’s been about three years since I started; I was 31, 30 years old. You can start at that age, and there are no problems,” Raymond said.
Nearly all of the afternoon’s most entertaining matches featured Nadia Cardin. Watching her hold her own against considerably larger men was thrilling in a way that’s truly unique to martial arts.
With only one other female rikishi in the Montreal Sumo Club, Cardin’s consistent practice against her male counterparts may give her an edge over the women in her bracket two weeks from now.
When she first saw Canadian sumo clubs in a report from Radio-Canada, she knew she had to give it a go.
“I thought that it was extraordinary to see these bodies on-screen; they look like me. Try it! [It’s] essential to take pleasure in the sport you do. Keep trying things, have fun.” — Nadia Cardin, rikishi, Montreal Sumo Club
“I thought that it was extraordinary to see these bodies on-screen; they look like me," Cardin shared, encouraging others to join. "Try it! [It’s] essential to take pleasure in the sport you do. Keep trying things, have fun.”
Once the competition ended and the teams received their awards, attendees were encouraged to learn the starting technique and attempt to push the club’s biggest member. It was clear that no one in attendance could move the rikishi. One by one, the attendees entering the dohyō gave it their best.
Many parents showed up with their children, who then wasted no time practicing what they saw in the matches. At one point, Cardin noticed two kids play-wrestling and invited them inside the dohyō for an official sumo wrestling experience. After some encouragement from their father, the two squared off much to the enjoyment of everyone watching.
The winner of the mini-match then had Cardin herself line up across from her. Smartly, she ran right back to her father.
Make sure to watch Team Canada’s men and women fight for a world championship in Baku on Oct. 17 and Oct. 18.
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