"Two weeks!" Who's coming with us to Ohio for the 2013 Arnold Sports Festival? TheArnoldFans staff will be in full celebration mode for the 25-year anniversary of the Arnold Classic, the world's biggest and best bodybuilding/fitness event. We will be working hard to bring you all the exclusive Arnold scoops so get ready for the maximum pump of news!
Created in 1989 by partners Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Lorimer, this juggernaut fitness expo now attracts roughly 175,000 enthusiastic sports fans. To kick off our Classic coverage, we spoke with Jim Lorimer, The Arnold Classic co-founder.
Considering this is the 25-year anniversary, I asked HOW the Sports Festival and Classic will honor this special event.
Jim Lorimer: "Randy, thanks for your on-going interest and support. The 25th Arnold Classic and Arnold Sports Festival will be the biggest and best ever. We will be presenting 46 sports and events and hosting more than 18,000 athletes. The Fitness EXPO will have more than 700 booths and continuous entertainment. New events this year will include the Scottish Highland Games competition and a Survival Games contest. Our Saturday evening Party With the Pros will be held at the Hollywood Casino in Columbus -- a new 100 million dollar entertainment complex. All of the past Arnold Champions will be present and participating in a Meet & Great session at Veterans Memorial on Thursday evening. That event will kick off a full weekend of great sports festival activity that will involve attendees from more than 80 nations. Come and enjoy the fun!"
Jim Lorimer: "I was Chairman of the U.S. Olympic Committee for Women's Track & Field in the 60's and from my promotion of track and field, I moved over to the promotion of Weightlifting and Bodybuilding," Lorimer tells TheArnoldFans.
"In 1967 I ran the National Weight Lifting Championships and the Mr. America contest here in Columbus Ohio which were both very successful contest. I was Chairman of the World Weightlifting Championships here in 1970, and in connection with the World Weightlifting Championships 1970 I also ran a Mr. World Competition that year, in which I invited the 6 top bodybuilders in the world to come in to Columbus Ohio. One of them was a young Austrian who just came over from Europe, and Arnold (Schwarzenegger) came in that weekend and he won the Mr. World 1970 competition. When he was done competing that day, he came up to me and said: "This is the best competition I've ever been in, when I am done competing in the sport of bodybuilding I want to go into the promotion of the sport, raise the image of the sport and I am going to raise the cash-prizes up to 100,000 dollars and make it a very professional sport." That evening he won a cash-prize of $500 dollars and hearing to say he wanted to raise the cash-prize up to $100,000 I said okay, but I didn't know who he really was."
I asked Jim what he thought of Arnold when he saw him for the first time.
Jim Lorimer: "I was very impressed by him, because he was fantastically well built and very intelligent. I did not know him well of course, but you could see there was something special about him. He could tell you what he's going to be doing 5 years from now, that goal-setting ability is very crucial to his success. Because even today he's always planning out some 5 years from now and that's what gives him a goal."
Lorimer also tells me his favorite Arnold movies are T1 and T2. See you at the party, Jim! For more information on the Arnold Sports Festival and tickets, visit www.arnoldsportsfestival.com.
