His father Jigjidiin Mönkhbat won a silver medal in freestyle wrestling at the 1968 Summer Olympics, his country's first ever Olympic medal, and held the highest ranking in Mongolian wrestling, "Darkhan Avarga" (meaning "Undisputed Champion"), which is the Mongolian equivalent of yokozuna.
Davaajargal did not however have any formal training in Mongolian wrestling himself, as his father wished him to try other sports, and he concentrated on basketball as a child instead.
However, at an early age he would be seen reading sumo magazines, and when his father asked him why he liked sumo so much, he responded by saying he wanted to be as big as a sumo wrestler one day.
At that time he was considered below average in size.
2000
He went to Japan in October 2000 when he was fifteen years old, invited by pioneering Mongolian wrestler Kyokushūzan.
Because he weighed only 62 kg, no sumo training stable (heya) was prepared to accept him.
Hearing this, Kyokushūzan asked heya master Miyagino-oyakata to intercede, and Davaajargal was accepted to Miyagino stable on the last day of his two-month stay in Japan, 24 December 2000.
He was given the ring name (shikona) Hakuhō, with haku meaning "white" and hō, meaning the Chinese mythological bird Peng.
His shikona also emulates that of former yokozuna Taihō.
2001
Hakuhō Shō (白鵬 翔)) is a former professional sumo wrestler (rikishi) from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Making his debut in March 2001, he reached the top makuuchi division in May 2004. In May 2007, at the age of 22, he became the second native of Mongolia, and the fourth non-Japanese overall, to be promoted to the highest rank in sumo, yokozuna.
Hakuhō made his professional debut at the March tournament (honbasho) in Osaka in 2001 despite having no previous wrestling experience.
2004
His weight increased steadily as he rose in the ranks reaching the second highest jūryō division in January 2004, and the top makuuchi division in May of the same year.
In his very first top-division tournament, he scored twelve wins against three losses and was awarded a special prize (sanshō) for Fighting Spirit.
He also enjoyed great success in subsequent tournaments, winning a gold star (kinboshi) for defeating yokozuna Asashōryū in November 2004 while still at the lowest makuuchi rank of maegashira.
This tournament also saw him finish as runner-up for the first time.
2005
He achieved a rapid promotion to the rank of komusubi in January 2005 and sekiwake only one tournament later.
His progress was delayed by an injury which forced him to take leave (zen-kyu) from the Nagoya tournament in 2005.
2006
His ōzeki promotion came in March 2006 after a 13–2 record, which included a playoff for the championship (which he lost to Asashōryū) and also earned him two special prizes for Outstanding Performance and Technique.
This gave him a three tournament record of 35 wins against ten losses.
His promotion was confirmed just a few weeks after his twenty-first birthday, making him the fourth youngest wrestler to reach ōzeki in modern sumo history.
At his first tournament as ōzeki in May 2006, with Asashōryū absent, Hakuhō won his first championship (yūshō) with a 14–1 record, defeating Miyabiyama in another playoff.
After another strong performance (13–2) in July, in which he finished as runner-up to Asashōryū and defeated him on the final day, Hakuhō was denied promotion to yokozuna, despite the Japan Sumo Association's chairman Kitanoumi saying before the tournament that he would be considered if he posted 13 wins.
Hakuhō told an interviewer that he had expected to be promoted.
An uncharacteristically poor 8–7 showing in September put an end to any immediate promotion hopes.
2007
An injury sustained in training prevented him from participating in the November tournament, putting him at risk for demotion (kadoban) in January 2007, when he scored a respectable ten wins on his return to the ring.
In March 2007 Hakuhō won his second championship in Osaka and a third championship in the very next tournament in May, with a perfect 15–0 (zenshō) record.
Winning two consecutive championships satisfies the de facto requirements for promotion to the top rank in sumo.
On the day following the tournament, the Yokozuna Deliberation Council unanimously recommended his promotion to yokozuna which was formally announced by the Japan Sumo Association on 30 May 2007.
He had become yokozuna at the age of 22 years and two months – only Kitanoumi and Taihō had been younger when they were promoted.
2009
In 2009, he broke the record for the most wins in a calendar year, winning 86 out of 90 bouts, and repeated this feat with the same record again in 2010 when he established the second longest winning streak in sumo history.
He also holds the record for the most undefeated tournament championships at sixteen, which is eight more than any other sumo wrestler in history.
2010
He was the only active yokozuna from 2010, following the retirement of his rival and fellow Mongolian Asashōryū, until 2012 with the promotion of fellow Mongolian Harumafuji.
In March 2021, he became the only active yokozuna once again following the retirement of his rival and fellow Mongolian Kakuryū until the promotion of fellow Mongolian Terunofuji four months later.
2015
In January 2015, he broke Taihō's long-standing record by winning his 33rd top division championship, the most in the history of sumo.
2016
He holds the records for most wins in the top division, achieved in May 2016, and most career wins, achieved in July 2017.
2019
He was the longest-serving yokozuna of all-time, having surpassed Haguroyama's record in 2019, and fought his 1000th bout as a yokozuna in July 2020.
He acquired Japanese citizenship in 2019.
Hakuhō retired from professional sumo at the end of September 2021, closing out a 20-year career in the sport.
Sumo commentator John Gunning noted that Hakuhō left an unmatchable legacy, while a columnist for the Washington Post called him the "greatest figure in sports, maybe ever."
Like many of his countrymen in professional sumo, Hakuhō belongs to a family in the Mongolian wrestling tradition.
