Sawt Falasteen - 'Empowering': Ireland's first female sumo wrestler blazes a trail

Having tried the centuries-old Japanese discipline out of curiosity, Toraigh (pronounced Tori) Mallon, from Lisburn in Northern Ireland, now trains alongside bulky and beefy men, relying on balance and grit rather than sheer size.

During a coaching session ahead of the British Isles Sumo Championships in Belfast on Saturday, she paused between bouts to catch her breath.

"It's hard work, like moving wardrobes full of cement, but I try my best," the 32-year-old mental health nurse told AFP.

Mark Christie, 39, one of six male wrestlers at the session, welcomed her involvement.

"Women had less access to lots of sports in the past, it's good that sport's more open now," he said.

Mallon first turned up on a whim last February after seeing an Instagram advert for a new sumo club in Belfast, stepping into an unfamiliar world of ritual, grappling and close-contact combat.

"It was me versus all the men, which was pretty intimidating yet empowering at the same time: you wouldn't normally fight somebody who was male, but it's good to be an underdog and beat them," she said.

Knowing nothing about sumo or Japanese culture, she was immediately smitten by its speed and simplicity: force the opponent to touch the ground inside the dohyo ring, or out of it altogether.

- 'Wedding dress' -

Having the thick white cotton "mawashi" sumo belt put on her for the first time "felt like a wedding dress fitting", Mallon recalled.

"Sumo's fun, even if it is against mostly men, sort of like messing about with your siblings in the living room when you were a kid," she added.

In recent weeks, a few other women have turned up to try their hand on the mat.

"Until then I think I was the only female sumo wrestler on the island of Ireland, Irish champion by default!" Mallon joked.

But with more women joining "now I'm going to have work a bit harder for that title".

Thanks to club founder and coach Johnny Templeton, Mallon says she has learned a lot about the sport's roots in Shinto, the indigenous nature-oriented belief system of Japan.

Its origins can be traced back some 2,000 years and rituals like purification, bowing and ring-entering ceremonies are woven into competition.

Sumo's links to Ireland started about 20 years ago with a wrestler called John Gunning who moved to Japan and turned professional, before becoming a famous English-language sumo pundit there, according to Templeton.

In late 2024 the longtime combat sports fan, who took up sumo during a Covid lockdown, set up the club in a Belfast jiu-jitsu hall, adapting the space for the ancient sport and forming an Irish federation.

Like the governing bodies of rugby, cricket, boxing and other sports, sumo in Ireland is organised on an all-island basis to include British territory Northern Ireland.

- 'Travel and fun' -

Now roots are spreading with clubs sprouting in Dublin, Cork, and rural Northern Ireland as interest grows.

But almost all the wrestlers are men, so far, according to 37-year-old Templeton, who represented Great Britain at a sumo world championships in Poland in 2024.

"Women like Toraigh getting involved is amazing because it's something that isn't even very common in Japan" where females are barred from competing professionally, he told AFP.

"Especially in Ireland, we find that the girls aren't as interested as the boys, maybe shying away from it because of an idea that a sumo wrestler is not very ladylike," he said.

"But once they see someone like Toraigh and how fun it is, more girls will definitely try it out."

On Saturday Mallon competed for Team Ireland against three other women in her category -- from England and Scotland -- who joined around 60 wrestlers, including seven women, from around the UK and Ireland.

It was her second major tournament after the Scottish Open in August.

Despite losing all three bouts in her light heavyweight category in Belfast, she said she still enjoyed the experience.

"The matches were all close so I feel like I did the best I could, and learnt a lot," she told AFP.

Although the exact numbers of women sumo wrestlers in Ireland and the UK are not known, Templeton said the increasingly popular sport offers exciting opportunities.

"You can make it onto teams, win medals, and go travel to European and World Championships, now is the time to get involved," he said.

F.Qawasmeh--SF-PST