Born in Mongolia, Hakuho was famous for his diligent training which led him to be sumo’s grand champion – or Yokozuna – with victories in a record 45 tournaments. He won 1,187 victories, an all-time sumo record.

But at 36, he announced his retirement after a right knee injury.

He has had two knee surgeries and only played one tournament this year. It was July and he says that, despite winning the tournament, he knew the injury would not let him continue.

“I had my knee surgery, I got the coronavirus, then I had another knee surgery in March,” he said on Friday, speaking in Japanese at a press conference. farewell press.

He said his knee “didn’t work well” in his last tournament. He said at the press conference that he would now work on training young wrestlers.

Born Munkhbat Davaajargal in 1985, he is the son of a silver medalist for Mongolia in freestyle wrestling at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City.

Hakuho came to Japan at the age of 15 to begin his sumo career. He debuted in 2001 and won his first makuuchi top division title five years later before reaching the highest Yokozuna rank in 2007.

When asked how his so-called training master Miyagino took care of him, Hakuho, who has Japanese nationality, had tears in his eyes.

“Thanks to my master Miyagino, I am here today,” he said. “I want to express my deepest gratitude.”

He said that Miyagino was kind to young wrestlers and taught him everything.

“I trained hard only because I wanted to be praised by him, and only through that could I become a full wrestler and a Yokozuna,” Hakuho said.

“When I got into sumo I wanted to be a Yokozuna one day but I didn’t aim to set a record of 45 wins,” he said. “I got here taking one step at a time.”

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