From MemoryArchive
Who: Kurran Ochwat
What: Arnold Classic Bodybuilding Expo
When: March 2, 1996
Where: Columbus, Ohio
Arnold Schwarzenegger was my favorite
movie star growing up. Some of my all-time favorite movies are
Conan The Barbarian,
Predator, and
The Terminator. By far, these were Schwarzenegger best movies. He did not have very much dialogue and just laid a path of death and destruction. I also just started to get into
weightlifting for
football and bought his
Bodybuilders Encyclopedia to Modern Weightlifting. It helped me out getting started in the
gym and have became
addicted to it. Working out helps me deal with
stress and I feel food when I leave the gym. I always looked at the
Flex magazines and was in awe at the freakishly huge guys with very small penises. It was even more amazing seeing them in person. My hometown was a suburb of
Columbus, Ohio and was home to the
Arnold (Schwarzenegger) Classic—one of the largest
bodybuilding shows in the world. It is held every year at the
Greater Columbus Convention Center during the first weekend in
March. During the day it was a big expo with all of the major bodybuilders and many
celebrities sitting at booths signing
autographs. One of the bodybuilders that I wanted to see was
Gunther Schlierkamp; he is a 6 foot 2 inch tall white guy weighing 280 pounds at competition time. This guy is HUGE! I shook his hand but got the sense that he was not very friendly so I did not ask him a lot of questions. I just took his autograph and went on my way. I walked up to the main stage where they have scheduled events that lasts the whole weekend. Everything from
martial arts competitions to
gymnastics. I came on a
Saturday because that was when they had the world weightlifting competition. Now this was a very exciting event for all of the worlds’ weightlifting champions gathered at this one event for a series of weightlifting competitions. The first event was the two-man
dead lift. Two
power lifters would strap into an elongated
barbell and attempt the lift a little under a ton. The two
German weightlifters came onto stage with very loud
heavy metal music blaring in the background to pump them up while their trainers were slapping them hard in the face to get their
adrenaline flowing. They strapped them selves into barbell and on the count of three they stood up. Everything went smoothly until the guy on the left ripped one of his
quadriceps in his leg and collapsed. The whole event was terrifying because the guy could not just drop the weight since he was strapped in. So he fell down with the weight very violently. His partner could not hold the weight up by himself and fell down with him. The man with the ripped quadriceps was screaming and people on stage ran to unwrap him from the bar. A
stretcher came and took the man offstage and the events continued on like nothing happened. I thought it was quite amusing and cool that I saw that happen. The next event had a much happier ending. It was time for the
bench press. A 350-pound
Samoan cam wobbling onto the stage and looked like a perfect ball. I never saw anybody look like that before. Well after a few slaps in the face he got on the bench and took a few deep breaths. He slowly but successfully pressed 801 pounds! It was the most incredible display of strength that I ever saw. They had to use a special bar because a normal one would have bent under all that weight. After that event I felt that I saw everything that I wanted to see; a man’s quadriceps was ripped and someone pressed 801 pounds breaking the
world record.
External Links
Arnold Classic
Flex Magazine
