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Sportshour: New York’s Living Room Sumo Dohyo

Discussion & Talk

NEW-YORK-SUMO.jpg

11/05/2024 GMT

New York’s Living Room Sumo Dohyo

BBC World Service - Sportshour, New York’s Living Room Sumo Dohyo

James Grammer explains why his living room is now used for sumo wrestling.

New Yorker James Grammer explains why his living room is now used for sumo wrestling.

Would you move heaven and earth to change your life? No? Well how about just your living room? When times got tough, New Yorker James Grammer found solace in sport, in particular the ancient Japanese sport of Sumo. But initially there was nowhere local to compete. While the parks were fine in the summer, the traditional sumo loincloth would be a bit chilly in winter ! So James turned his apartment into a Beya, the name for where Sumo wrestlers train. He’ll tell us the joys and drawbacks of sumo wrestling at home and his ambitions going forward as well as why he has been so keen on big contact sports growing up.

Iranian born film director Milad Alami moved to Sweden as a child refugee and his latest movie OPPONENT uses the sport of wrestling to highlight the challenges encountered by refugees across Europe. Milad draws on his own experiences to tell the story of an Iranian wrestler who worn down by the asylum process seeks out the one thing he knows and starts to train with the Swedish wrestling team. He tells us why he chose wrestling, why he wanted to highlight the challenge of refugees fitting into a new country and how important it was for him to cast real refugees in the film.

We’ll get the inside track on horse racing’s oldest racecourse, the Roodee – more commonly known as Chester Racecourse. Sportshour reporter Richard Padula finds out why former Ballon d’or winner Michael Owen is so enamoured with the sport and the course.

On Eurovision Grand Final day, BBC Sport’s music aficionado Pat Nevin casts his ear across the fancied songs for this year’s competition. Croatia are strong favourites but are they Pat’s?

Plus, what links American footballer Brandon Mebane, Footballer Douglas Luiz and Formula One Driver Daniel Ricciardo? The answer – Bellydancing and to mark World Bellydancing Day, we’ll get a tutorial from Heather Eggins from Belly Dance Heaven.

Photo: Sumo wrestlers practice in James Grammer's apartment turned sumo Beya in New York. (Credit: James Grammer)

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