National Geographic Explorer: Inside Sumo aired yesterday on the National Geographic Channel.  This documentary gives a breif history of professional sumo traditions while they follow Yokozuna Asashoryu and Yokozuna Hakuho preparing for the Grand Sumo Tournament in Hawaii.  The documentary also features myself and Carl Pappalardo as we trained for the 2007 US National Sumo Championships.

In case you missed it, I won the openweight class.  I am now the 2007 US Openweight Sumo Champion.

I thought National Geographic did a decent job on this documentary, compared to others I’ve seen.  They made an effort to educate the American public about professional sumo, but unfortunately focused too much on Asashoryu being the “bad boy” of the sport.  The segments about sumo in the US did a good job of capturing our struggle for respect, and hopefully will bring new interest in the sport.

Kelly Gneiting and I were flown out to New York to promote National Geographic Explorer: Inside Sumo on Good Morning America.  I didn’t get into Manhattan until 1:00 AM, but still met Kelly in Times Square for a meal.  We each downed 2 “jumbo” slices of New York pizza, which seemed like a mere snack for 2 champion sumo wrestlers. 

We had about 3 hours of sleep before we got called down to the studio.  Good Morning America had already made a newsclip out of the National Geographic footage, so they didn’t want to interveiw us.  They asked Kelly to demonstrate matawari (front splits) while I just did a bunch of shiko (sumo squatting exercise).  Check it out: Sumo on Good Morning America

After the show, Kelly and I posed for pictures with the “studio” audience (who were inside due to the cold) and GMA reporter Chris Cuomo.

Then we were rushed out of the studio, back to the hotel for a shower, then into the limo headed for the airport.  I was in New York for less than 12 hours.  Hopefully our appearance on Good Morning America will encourage people to watch the National Geographic show.