At six-foot-seven and 360 pounds, athlete Brodi Henderson has always been the biggest guy on the team.
Now, the 20-year-old from Victoria, B.C., is using his size and strength to his advantage as the only North American to be accepted into the Japan Sumo Association.
“He’s really strong,” dad Lee Henderson told Metro. “He benches over 500 pounds.”
Soon after discovering sumo, Henderson travelled to California to compete in the U.S. Sumo Open. After only a day of training, he went on to win almost every match, said Lee.
“It was pretty jaw dropping,” he said. “He’s a big, powerful man, but still, for a guy who has virtually no formal training, everyone was really impressed with his overall strength.”
Although he has a “long way to go,” Andrew Freund, director of USA Sumo, said Henderson had an impressive performance at last year’s U.S. Sumo Open.
“Last year, he pulled out some pretty incredible upsets,” said Freund. “There’s a spark of potential.”
Henderson is now staying in a “heya,” the Japanese word for stable or training quarters, where a group of sumo wrestlers live and train together full-time. He has no access to phone or Internet and is only permitted to write a letter to his family once a month.
“It’s almost like a monastery in a way that they’re all brothers,” Lee said. “They live together, they eat together and they train together.”
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Canadian sumo superstar making waves in Japan | Metro
Now, the 20-year-old from Victoria, B.C., is using his size and strength to his advantage as the only North American to be accepted into the Japan Sumo Association.
“He’s really strong,” dad Lee Henderson told Metro. “He benches over 500 pounds.”
Soon after discovering sumo, Henderson travelled to California to compete in the U.S. Sumo Open. After only a day of training, he went on to win almost every match, said Lee.
“It was pretty jaw dropping,” he said. “He’s a big, powerful man, but still, for a guy who has virtually no formal training, everyone was really impressed with his overall strength.”
Although he has a “long way to go,” Andrew Freund, director of USA Sumo, said Henderson had an impressive performance at last year’s U.S. Sumo Open.
“Last year, he pulled out some pretty incredible upsets,” said Freund. “There’s a spark of potential.”
Henderson is now staying in a “heya,” the Japanese word for stable or training quarters, where a group of sumo wrestlers live and train together full-time. He has no access to phone or Internet and is only permitted to write a letter to his family once a month.
“It’s almost like a monastery in a way that they’re all brothers,” Lee said. “They live together, they eat together and they train together.”
more
Canadian sumo superstar making waves in Japan | Metro