I know there's at least one of you who is a reader of this blog and also a Sumo fan so here is some ground shaking news: Marijuana use by Sumo wrestlers... The past couple years have not been kind to the traditional sport, Sumo. Declining numbers of people training, wrestlers dying, and now drugs finding its way into this proud Japanese sport. Isn't it enough that Japanese are being out done by foreign wrestlers (Asashoryu among others); now they have to deal with drugs! Interestingly enough, it's the Russian wrestlers being caught with the pot. A couple weeks ago, a Russian wrestler was found with it in his wallet (which he had dropped and it was turned in). If his wallet was found in America, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have been turned in at all and if it was no marijuana would have been found in it... but I digress. Well, he was expelled and drug tests ensued. Two more wrestlers (Russian) were found to have marijuana in their system. We will have to see where this goes as it isn't against the law to smoke, you're only in trouble if you have it.
On a side note, in the article they point out how a Japanese wrestler killed a pedestrian while driving a couple years back and only received a 1 tournament suspension. Asashoryu was caught playing soccer in Mongolia when he was supposed to be injured and was sidelined for 3 months.