People: Jun. 24, 1985

All over America last week media wits were weighing in with the heavy jokes. Well, it was kind of amusing, from a limited Occidental view, to see Secretary of State George Shultz, no sylph himself, standing between two near naked sumo wrestlers from Japan in the federal drawing room at the State Department. The grapplers were in the U.S. for the first sanctioned sumo match abroad, in the hopes of winning new friends for Japan and the sport. Shultz, who was filling in at the last minute for the President, gamely turned to 268- lb. Grand Champion Chiyonofuji, 30, and 491-lb. Konishiki, 21, and said, “Welcome to our country.” Replied Konishiki: “Hey, thanks, but I’m an American.” Born Salevaa Atisnoe in Hawaii, the quarter-tonner stands on the edge of becoming a sekiwake, the sport’s third highest rank, something no American has ever achieved. Hulk Hogan, eat your heart out.