Local woman paving the way for female sumo wrestlers
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IDAHO FALLS — Rigby native Natalie Burns is a female athlete who’s trying to inspire other women in a non-traditional way — through slapping, pushing and her signature muwashi belt.
Burns competes in a heavy-duty sport few women ever consider. She’s a heavyweight female sumo wrestler. Don’t take the term heavyweight too literally though, Burns is very physically fit.
“I feel good about it. I feel like I’m recognized, and it’s a legal way to get in a fight with somebody without going to jail,” Burns said.
To her sumo wrestling is a hobby, but anyone that has seen her in action knows she isn’t one to mess with. Burns has worked hard learning how to brawl and win. Since attending her first match in 2003, she’s won a number of gold medals.
“I’m kind of paving the way for women, I like to inspire people,” she said.
Many of those awards and medals are displayed at North Hi-Way Cafe in Idaho Falls, where Burns works as a waitress.
“We are very, very proud of Natalie,” North Hi-Way Cafe owner Roxanne Smith said.
Burns’ goal as an athlete is to show all women they can be athletic, no matter what their body type or emotional makeup.
“I want to let everybody know that no matter what size you are you can be an athlete. You can use yourself and be beautiful and be mean and get your aggressions out legally,” Burns said.
After grappling in a national competition last week she now holds the USA Sumo 2016 championship title for female wrestlers in the open weight division. This qualifies her to compete in the world championships and the world games.
The professional sumo wrestling circuits don’t recognize females in the sport, Burns said. But she is very active in the amateur league, competing nationally and internationally.
“It is an amateur sport for America and (many) countries other than Japan, (although,) Japan (also) has an amateur team,” she said. “In traditional sumo, women aren’t recognized at all.”
Burns said the local sumo wrestling scene, which was once very active in eastern Idaho, has dried up. As a result she has no one to practice her sumo maneuvers with.
“I have a lot of girlfriends, but they’re all scared I’m going to hurt them, but I’m not going to, because it’s just practice,” Burns said.
Since she doesn’t have anyone to train with, she’s learned to improvise and remain dedicated to her sport.
“When there ain’t nobody to sumo, I sumo with a tree. I’ve been charging at a tree or slapping a tree. (I’m) not going to obviously pick it up and move it, but if (I) could well that’d be awesome,” she said.
Burns focuses all of her energy on hitting the tree to try to get it to budge.
“I try to hit it as hard as I can to see if I’m going to be able to move it or how powerful I am when I first blast something,” she said. “It hasn’t really given me any feedback (and) it doesn’t hit back, but it’s a start.”
Burns doesn’t see herself doing sumo into her elderly years, but she plans to enjoy it for as long as possible.
“I want to win at least one tournament on the international level,” she said.
Burns’ next big match is the 2016 U.S. Sumo Open in Long Beach California and she’s confident she will bring home a gold.