Less than four years after fleeing the 2022 Russian invasion and landing in Japan, Ukrainian sumo wrestler Danylo Yavhusishyn stands poised to become the first-ever European-born wrestler to be named a Yokozuna (Grand Champion), the highest ranking in the sport. In January, the 21-year-old won his second consecutive top-division title.

Yavhusishyn was born in Vinnytsia in central Ukraine in 2004. His first glimpse of sumo wrestling came around 2010, when his mother was running late to pick him up from a judo lesson. As the boy waited, a sumo training session began in the sports hall. The sport's fast rounds -- which usually last just seconds -- and simple rules captivated Yavhusishyn.

Sumo bouts are decided when one wrestler either forces the other outside a 4.5-meter circle or causes his opponent to ground any body part besides the soles of their feet.

"When my mother arrived I said, 'Oh not judo anymore: sumo, this is the sport for me,'" he recalled in a 2025 press conference.

In 2019 the young Ukrainian, who also trained in freestyle wrestling, traveled to Osaka to compete in the World Junior Sumo Championships. The trip gave him a crucial personal connection for the future that awaited.

Yavhusishyn made friends with Japanese sumo wrestler Arata Yamanaka at the 2019 tournament, and the two stayed in touch over social media. Soon after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Yamanaka learned his Ukrainian friend was seeking to reach Japan and attempt a career as a sumo wrestler. Yamanaka and his family helped to arrange a visa and a place for him to stay, and the teenager flew to Osaka in April 2022.

The Ukrainian soon joined a well-known sumo stable where he endured a relentless training regimen, as well as transformative quantities of food.

Sumo wrestling has no weight classes, meaning the bigger the athlete, the greater the advantage. Wrestlers consume around 10,000 calories per day, in food and often beer, and take hours-long naps directly after meals to maximise weight gain. The average weight of elite sumo wrestlers is around 150 kilograms and their lifespans as a result are at least 10 years shorter than the male Japanese average. Yavhusishyn has said gaining weight is the hardest part of life as a sumo wrestler.

The 21-year-old, who weighs around 140 kilograms, gave an uncomfortable insight into this aspect of the sport when he admitted that while he aimed to add further bulk to his frame, such efforts would be "painful."

Yavhusishyn picked up Japanese through an enforced total immersion in the language and adopted the ring name Aonishiki. The adopted title includes a reference in Japanese language to the blue of the Ukrainian flag.

He made his Japanese debut in September 2023 and immediately stood out for an unusually low stance, along with explosive throws and trips that he credits to his background in freestyle wrestling.

In March 2025 he entered the top division of Japan's sumo circuit -- the equivalent of football's premier league -- becoming one of only three wrestlers ever to ascend to the division within just nine tournaments.

In January, Yavhusishyn won his second consecutive tournament in the elite division, a victory that captivated the Japanese public and led to press there hailing his technique as nearing "perfection."

If the young Ukrainian can win his next tournament, scheduled for March, he will be eligible for a promotion to Yokozuna, a rare title bestowed only upon wrestlers who demonstrate absolute mastery of the sport, as well as dignity outside the ring. Yavhusishyn would become the 76th Yokozuna in the sport's centuries-long history and the first-ever European to have achieved the immortal title.

In interviews Yavhusishyn has shied away from geopolitics, insisting on speaking about sumo wrestling rather than the ongoing invasion of his country, but in a 2025 press conference he said, "I hope that people in Ukraine will be able to see my sumo and be encouraged by it."

At the same press event he expressed interest in eventually switching his nationality to Japanese. "If I were ever to have such an opportunity, I would [take it]," he said.

Arata Yamanaka, the Japanese sumo wrestler who gave Yavhusishyn the lifeline that enabled him to achieve sporting greatness in Japan, is now forever bound to the Ukrainian's success: Yavhusishyn's full ring name is Aonishiki Arata. The second part of the name was chosen by the Ukrainian to honor his Japanese friend.