As I posted before. Samantha “Sammy Sumo” Jane-Stacey is a 14-year-old Australian sumo wrestler who is competing in a sumo championship in Estonia. And she won!

She has become the youngest Australian to win a medal at the World Sumo Championships.

She battled through five matches with a sprained ankle to win silver in the junior women’s heavyweight division at the championships in Estonia at the weekend – the first Australian in 16 years to medal at the event.

Some online readers of The Courier-Mail turned her achievement into a debate on obesity, prompting the website to pull public comments after attacks became personal.

Samantha-Jane’s mother, Sue, said her daughter’s critics “should get a life”.

“Some of the comments were the most disgusting, un-Australian things I’ve ever read,” she said from her Banora Point home.

“The things people say don’t worry Sam because she’s happy in her own skin. To me, she’s beautiful inside and out and I’m so proud of her. She’s a gift from God and I love her so much.”

Mrs Stacey said her daughter led an active life – playing netball as well as competitive sumo wrestling – and her weight was due to a medical condition rather than a junk food diet.

“The only takeaway food she eats is sushi. We’re not takeaway people,” she said.

“She eats very healthily; Weetbix and fruit for breakfast, a salad roll for lunch and a normal dinner. She probably eats less than my eldest daughter, who’s a size 8.”

Mrs Stacey said Samantha-Jane had “copped flak” about her weight in the past but she now attended a Christian school where she had become a sporting hero.

“She’s very confident in who she is and I’m just so happy she’s found something that she’s good at in sumo wrestling,” she said.

“I know how hard she works and how hard she trains. She’s on the go all day.”

Australian Sumo Federation president Katrina Watts also defended Samantha-Jane’s weight and said it would not hurt her to get even bigger.

“She has been wrestling since she was a kid and she is very fit and healthy,” Ms Watts said.

“Her whole family is big so it’s not an issue. Some of the female sumo wrestlers are over 160kg.”

Ms Watts said Samantha-Jane had been invited to train in Japan on her way back to Australia.

“She has really impressed everybody,” she said.

SOURCE

See, I told you I was rooting for her! Congratulations Sammy! Good Win!