A 345-pound sumo wrestler tried to get some good luck from the Rocky steps

A 345-pound sumo wrestler rushed the Art Museum steps à la Rocky Balboa Thursday afternoon in a cathartic, good luck ritual of sorts ahead of a major appearance at the International Sumo League World Championship in Atlantic City. Barely anyone noticed.

It was just another way Abdelraham Shalan — better known as Oosunaarashi, which roughly translates to “The Great Sandstorm” in Japanese — sees parallels between him and the fictional Rocky Balboa.

“He had his journey from the very bottom to the top,” said the 32-year-old Shalan, who recalls watching the movies as a kid growing up in Egypt. “That’s pretty much what I did and pretty much what I’m doing right now.”

Shalan was once a widely recognized face in Japan’s sumo world and he only returned to the art form after a five-year hiatus at his 6-year-old’s behest this year.

To hear Shalan speak about his sumo journey is like hearing someone talk about how they met the love of their life. Shalan always wanted to be an athlete. He tried bodybuilding and kung fu but when he discovered sumo at 14, a part of him came alive, even if he started as essentially a sandbag for more experienced wrestlers.

Yet Shalan said he was persistent. His rise through the sport was quick as he accumulated wins as far as Estonia and Bulgaria in his teens. He said he moved to Japan when he was 19, and was the first sumo from Africa to wrestle there.

There he met Alaa Okasha at an Egyptian restaurant. Though she was studying abroad and majoring in Japanese, Okasha said she knew nothing about sumo, though she quickly noticed people revered Shalan, kneeling and moving out of his way.

“They treat them literally like gods,” she said.

That fame came with strict rules. The Japan Sumo Association, which governs sumo, prohibits its wrestlers from driving. After Shalan got into a car accident without a license, the association asked him in 2018 to retire, one of the harshest punishments in the sport.

When asked why he retired, Shalan only said he was about to be a father and he wanted a break from fame to focus on his family. He moved to California that year.

Still, his wife said it “was a hard adjustment to act like normal people.”

Like Rocky, however, Shalan could only stay away so long. He said his eldest son wanted to see him fight outside of YouTube. Thus began Shalan’s return, this time in the United States, where sumo has a much smaller audience and is structured slightly differently and with looser restrictions — wrestlers can wear shorts under the traditional mawashi loincloth.

The 6-foot-2 wrestler most recently conquered Madison Square Garden, where he defeated his opponents. Despite all the time away from wrestling, it was like muscle memory, he said.

He hopes to meet similar success in Atlantic City in two weeks and propel the sport to new heights in the United States.

For now, he’s training every day — there are dozens of sumo techniques one can use — and eating. His wife said she spends much of her time making protein, whether it’s eight eggs for breakfast or half a chicken for lunch.

Okasha said the return to wrestling has been an adjustment but exciting for the whole family. Her children, ages 6, 3, and 2, mimic their father’s movements.

Upon arriving at the steps on Thursday, a barefoot Shalan answered some reporter questions before taking off his Stitch (as in Lilo & Stitch) T-shirt to join the dozens of other tourists and school-age kids in what looked like an effortless climb.

A two-man team of videographers captured the moment for a future hype video.

At the summit, Shalan made the Rocky champion pose, not unlike the one he’ll make if he wins it all in Atlantic City.