Bigger, Faster, Stronger

What sports festival, already the largest multi-sport event in the world, has grown even larger to an estimated 22,000 athletes from 80 countries who will compete in a record 80 sports? If you guessed the Olympics, guess again. The correct answer is the 2020 Arnold Sports Festival, happening in Columbus from March 5-8 in various locations throughout the city.

Celebrating its 32nd year in 2020, the festival is co-produced by Jim Lorimer and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. In 1989, the event debuted as a one-day bodybuilding competition known as the Arnold Classic.

Jim Lorimer. Image courtesy of Jeffrey S. Hall Photography.

Prior to the Arnold Classic, Lorimer had been afforded the opportunity to organize and produce the 1970 world weightlifting championships. The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) had taken notice of the fact that Lorimer, secretary for the U.S. Olympic Committee for women’s track and field at the time, was producing the U.S. national track and field championships. The AAU approached Lorimer with the opportunity to produce the 1967 national weightlifting championship in tandem with the Mr. America contest.

“They came to me and said, ‘We can get a national championship here in 1967 at the Mr. America contest if you will run the event,’ because they knew I knew how to run a national championship event,” says Lorimer. “So I ran that and it was quite successful. And immediately after that the weightlifting people came to me from the national level and said that they had never had a world weightlifting championship in the U.S.”

Lorimer agreed – but with his insight into competitive weightlifting – knew that producing seven days’ worth of competition with up to 50 participating nations was a recipe for losing a substantial amount of money.

“I told them weightlifting is a great sport, but the thing that draws people in is the ‘Mr.’ contests,” says Lorimer. “I told them that I would run the world weightlifting championship, but we must have a ‘Mr.’ contest to go along with it.”

The national weightlifting representatives asked Lorimer for recommendations on what to call the ‘Mr.’ contest.

“Let’s call it Mr. World,” says Lorimer.

With an agreement in place, Lorimer was granted the right to run the 1970 world weightlifting championships. His immediate move was to approach the premier sports network of the day – ABC’s Wide World of Sports.

“I told ABC ‘I’m going to have, in Columbus, Ohio for the first time, a world weightlifting championship,’” says Lorimer. “’We’re also going to have a Mr. World contest with it, would you like to televise the event?’”

The network expressed interest in televising the event, even tabbing sports journalist Jim McKay as the main announcer. Lorimer had the ball rolling at this point with national coverage, but he knew to have, at the very least, the top six bodybuilders in the world participate was critical to the event’s success. This group of top bodybuilders, at the time, included a young Austrian who had come to the U.S. and was spending time at Gold’s Gym in California. That young Austrian’s name was Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“I called him and explained that I had ABC’s Wide World of Sports covering the event,” says Lorimer.

Schwarzenegger responded with eagerness to participate, but had already committed to the Mr. Universe contest in London that same weekend. Lorimer suggested that if Arnold competed on Saturday evening of the London event and immediately boarded a flight out of Heathrow afterward, a plane would be waiting on standby in New York to bring him to Columbus to compete in the Mr. World event. Arnold agreed and after winning the London event, boarded a plane to Columbus and ultimately won the Mr. World event, beating out the top bodybuilder at the time, Sergio Oliva.

“After the competition, he came up to me and said, ‘This is the best event I’ve ever been in. When I am done competing in this sport, I want to go into the promotion of the sport and do everything I can to professionalize it and legitimize it and I’m coming back to Columbus, Ohio to ask you to be my partner,’” says Lorimer.

It was the beginning of a relationship that endures to this day.

Lorimer and Schwarzenegger kept in touch over the next few years; after Schwarzenegger’s final Mr. Olympia in 1975, he phoned Lorimer with the news that, after six Mr. Olympia titles in a row, his plan was to retire the following year. Now was the time to discuss a partnership.

The two met at what was then the downtown Columbus Holiday Inn, and a deal was struck -via a handshake - that would determine the future success of the Arnold Sports Festival. Schwarzenegger would be in charge of potential athletes and sponsors, while Lorimer would oversee logistics and run the event.

“Arnold is a very smart guy who knew what television could do for the sport,” says Lorimer.

Today the event utilizes all 1.7 million square feet of the Greater Columbus Convention Center, including a special executive suite dubbed the Lorimer Room, along with 10 other buildings located at the Ohio Expo Center. An entire building itself is dedicated solely to the 1,500 gymnasts participating in gymnastic events. Baton twirlers, table tennis players and archers each have a dedicated building. Various other facilities are utilized during the festival, including the Sawmill Athletic Club. Seven buses continuously ferry 1,500 spectators per hour between the fairgrounds and downtown area for free.

“We park 10,000 cars at the fairgrounds, so people can use the buses. It’s a huge logistical challenge, but there’s 200,000 people coming to Columbus over that weekend,” says Lorimer.

Those 200,000 visitors are, in large part, responsible for the $52 million that is pumped into the Columbus community over the course of four days. During the fitness exposition, thousands of vendors offer various types of fitness products for purchase.

The festival is no longer a U.S.-only event. Arnold Classic Worldwide hosts festivals throughout the year in Australia, South America, Africa and Europe.

2020 Schedule of Events

New Events Added in 2019

• Armlifting
• Foosball
• High School Weightlifting
• Speed Cubing
• Viking Dash Trail Runs

A Mountain of a Man

Haftór Júlíus Bj?rnsson, who hails from Iceland and is known around the world as the actor who plays Ser Gregor ‘The Mountain’ Clegane on HBO’s Game of Thrones, set a new world record in the ROGUE Elephant Bar Deadlift when he successfully lifted 1,041 pounds. That’s about as heavy as a full-grown grizzly bear or a Grand Piano!

For more information and to purchase tickets to the Arnold Sports Festival visit www.arnoldsportsfestival.com.

This article was originally published within the Jan./Feb. 2019 issue of CityScene Magazine.