Press conference of Arnold Schwarzenegger, left, and Rafael Santonja, right, president of the IFBB, in the “Arnold Classic Europe” 2018 multi-sport competition in Barcelona, Spain on 28 September 2018. Credit: Courtesy of TNS
The Arnold Sports Festival opened Thursday and will continue to host daily events throughout the weekend.
Amateur bodybuilding and bikini competitions, meet and greets and a pop culture panel, featuring DC Comics artist Doug Mahnke, will be held at the Columbus Convention Center while events to engage 20,000 youth attendees will take place at the Ohio Expo Center.
“It was mainly a bodybuilding event when we started it in 1989, but in the ’90s we started expanding to offer much more than that,” Brent LaLonde, communications director for the event, said. “Now we see a pretty even split of boys and girls, so we try to have variety.”
According to a press release, the expo will have about 1,000 vendor booths and has expanded to feature more than 80 sports and events.
He suggests that both newcomers and repeat attendees check out the online event schedule ahead of time to map out their visit.
“Newcomers may be a little overwhelmed because it is such a big event,” LaLonde said. “So, plan your attack. Plan on spending a couple of days there because you really can’t see it all in one day.”
The sports festival is expected to bring in over 200,000 attendees for four days, and though the crowd will be largely local, the competition will host 22,000 athletes from 60 different countries, LaLonde said.
“At the Expo Center there are a variety of youth sports out there including the mainstream sports like basketball, soccer or football,” he said. “But we also have gymnastics, cheerleading and martial arts just to name a few.”
Attendees can also watch sporting events, like the Ohio State men’s gymnastics team, who will be competing this weekend against Penn State and the Ukrainian national team at 2 p.m. on Saturday at the Celeste Center located on the Ohio Expo Center fairgrounds.
“A lot of the [gymnasts] really enjoy this event,” Drew Moling, director of operations for Ohio State men’s and women’s gymnastics, said. ”The atmosphere is loud and the fans can watch a lot of the gymnastics at once.”
Moling said the gymnastics events can help bring attention to the sport itself, which he said is great because gymnastics is not a major sport.
“There are only 16 Division 1 schools left, so coming out to a big event like this in the community is great,” Moling said.
The team has competed at The Arnold since 2014, while the gymnastics meet itself began in the early 2000s.
Moling said the atmosphere is different at this event because the space is bigger and there is more energy from the crowd, but that doesn’t mean they treat those meets differently than they do a regular or post-season matches.
“We want to go in there and do our job,” he said. “We’ve been trying to improve our consistency in our routines, because at the end of the day, it’s about who can hit their routines.”
Whether it be watching gymnastics, competing in an amateur competition, or participating in the numerous sporting events, LaLonde said attendees will not be disappointed.
“The event’s sheer size and the fact that it is a multi-sport event makes it special,” LaLonde said. “There is something for everyone to enjoy here.”
