Akebono Taro was the first non-Japanese-born wrestler ever to reach the highest rank in Sumo wrestling and he was also one of the tallest and heaviest Sumo wrestlers ever at 6′ 8″ in height and more than 500 pounds in weight. Taro retired from wrestling in January 2001 due to multiple injuries, and his massive obesity eventually caused him to die of heart failure at age 54.
Sumo wrestling is a Japanese form of heavyweight wrestling, in which a wrestler wins a bout by forcing his opponent outside a marked circle or by making him touch the ground with any part of his body except the soles of his feet. In his years as a professional Sumo wrestler from March 1988 to January 2001, Taro won 654 matches, lost 232 and tied in 181. He was a two-time Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion, two-time World Tag Team Champion, two-time All Asia Tag Team Champion, and winner of the 2015 Champion Carnival.
Progression to Champion Wrestler
Taro’s father, a taxi driver, was a native Hawaiian with Irish heritage, while his mother, an office worker, came from a Cuban family and was also a native Hawaiian. Taro was an outstanding basketball center in high school and won a basketball scholarship to Hawaii Pacific University. Many people told him that his huge size would make him a successful wrestler, so he became a Sumo wrestler. To further his career in Sumo wrestling, he moved to Japan, changed his birth name of Chad Rowan to Akebono Taro and became a Japanese citizen in 1996. In 1998, he married Christiane Reiko Kalina, a teacher, and they had two sons and a daughter.
Multiple Injuries and Health Problems
He suffered many injuries during his professional Sumo career.
- In May 1994, he won his first ten matches in a tournament, but then he fell backward, destroyed his knee and lost that match. He flew from Japan to Los Angeles and had extensive surgery which saved the knee.
- From November 1998 to March 1999, he was unable to compete because of a herniated disc in his lower back.
- In 2000 he won two tournaments and was runner up in three others in his first completely injury-free year since 1993. After winning his eleventh top division title in November 2000, he suffered multiple injuries that failed to heal, so he stopped wrestling and appeared in TV commercials. He also opened a restaurant called ZUNA.
In April 2017 he was hospitalized for irregular heartbeats and heart failure, and was placed in a medically-induced coma for two weeks. After being hospitalized, he lost close to 130 pounds. He was unable to walk and had to get around in a wheelchair. By 2019, he still could not walk, had significant loss of memory and at one time, was unable to speak clearly. He was eventually bedridden and in April 2024, he died of heart failure.
Sumo Wrestlers Die Younger than Other Japanese Men
I could not find a scientific article written in English that gives the average age of death of Sumo wrestlers, but I have seen several articles claiming that a Sumo’s life expectancy is about 55 years, which is 20 years less than that for the average for Japanese men. An article in the British Journal of Sports Medicine in 2006 showed that the average life expectancy of a Sumo wrestler is about 60 years, compared to the average life expectancy in Japan of about 84 years. Several articles found that the fatter and heavier Sumo wrestlers die much earlier than lighter wrestlers (Journal of Sports Science & Medicine, Dec 2009;8(4):711–712). For comparison, in North America, the average age of death of linemen in the National Football League is 74 years of age (PNAS, Oct 30, 2023;120 (45):e2308867120). That is two years earlier than the age of men in the general population, who die at 76.3 years. Running backs die at the same average age as the average American male, but the average National football league player has two factors that are associated with living longer lives: being richer and better educated than the average American male. The median life expectancy of a pro basketball player is 81.3 years.
Risk factors for an early death in Sumo wrestlers include (Nihon Eiseigaku Zasshi, Aug 1995;50(3):730-6):
- Life-shortening use of anabolic steroids, testosterone, insulin, and human growth hormone, to help them recover faster from resistance workouts so they can grow larger muscles.
• Motivation with money to keep them competing in tournaments while injured. The average salary for a professional Sumo wrestler is $120,000/year, and they can also receive tournament win bonuses and huge endorsements from food and sporting goods companies and other products. The highest earners earn a $200,000 to $300,000 base salary and much more from bonuses and endorsements. - Massive overeating to gain excess weight. A young Sumo starts preparing for his job before he is 14 years old and he may gorge on special high-protein soups that contain meat, fish, tofu, vegetables, noodles, rice, and sugar. A noon meal may have 100 sushi rolls and lots of beer.
- The wrestlers know that they can enhance weight gain by napping most of their days and staying inactive.
You Too Could Go Into Heart Failure From Inactivity
Lying in bed for many weeks and months can cause heart failure that can shorten your life (Europ J of Epidemiology, 2014;29:559-565), even in former world-class athletes. Lying in bed for long hours weakens your heart muscle (Circulation, Dec 2020;13(13)) because not moving your muscles puts you at increased risk for heart failure and premature death (J Am Coll Cardiol, October 2018;72(14)). Stopping exercise, even for a short time, causes a dramatic loss of muscle size and strength. It usually takes at least three times as long to recover the muscle strength that you lost through inactivity (J Am Med Assoc, 2007; 297: 1772-1774).
In 1914, Dr. Ernest Starling described what is known today as “Starling’s Law,” which says that there is an increase in the force of contraction of the ventricles in response to an increase in the volume of blood returning to the heart (Circulation, 2002;106(23):2986-2992). Thus strengthening skeletal muscles strengthens your heart muscle and not the other way around. When you contract your skeletal muscles, they squeeze the veins near them to pump extra blood back to your heart. The extra blood flowing back to your heart fills up your heart, which stretches your heart muscle, causing the heart muscle to contract with greater force and pump more blood back your body. This explains why your heart beats faster and harder to pump more blood when you exercise. The harder your heart muscle has to contract, the greater the gain in heart muscle strength. After lying in bed for several months, both your skeletal muscles and heart muscle become progressively weaker until your heart can become too weak to pump enough oxygen to your brain and you can die of heart failure. The larger your skeletal muscles, the stronger your heart and the less your chance of suffering heart diseases (J Epidem & Comm Health, Nov 11, 2019; Am J of Cardiology, Apr 15, 2016;117(8):1355-1360).
Lessons from the Young Death of a Sumo Wrestler
If you are overweight or inactive or both, check with your doctor about any medical problems that need treatment and ask for advice on how to make the lifestyle changes that will help you become more active and lose weight, such as:
- joining an exercise group or setting up a home exercise program
•following a plant-based anti-inflammatory diet that includes lots of vegetables, beans, whole grains and other seeds, and restricts sugar-added foods, sugared drinks, meat from mammals, processed meats and fried foods - avoiding smoke and avoiding or restricting alcohol
- keeping blood levels of hydroxy vitamin D above 20 ng/mL
- participating in groups of people with similar weight loss goals
- taking weight loss drugs, including the latest ones that are proving successful for some people. Also discuss drugs to lower cholesterol, high blood pressure and clotting, and possibly weight loss surgery.
Akebono Taro
May 8, 1969 – April 24, 2024
