Arnold Sports Festival

Arnold Sports Festival

2020
The official logo of the Arnold Sports Festival
Tournament information
Location	Greater Columbus Convention Center, Columbus, Ohio
Month played	March
Established	1989; 32 years ago (1989)
Format	Multi-event competition
Current champion
William Bonac

The IFBB Arnold Sports Festival, also known as the Arnold Schwarzenegger Sports Festival, is an annual multi-sport event consisting of professional bodybuilding (Arnold Classic), strongman (Arnold Strongman Classic), fitness, figure and bikini weekend expo. It was established in 1989 and is named after Arnold Schwarzenegger. The main event is held annually around late February or early March in Columbus, Ohio, United States, by the International Federation of BodyBuilding & Fitness (IFBB). It is considered the second-most-prestigious event in professional men's bodybuilding, physique, figure and bikini after Joe Weider's Olympia; it was formerly the second-most-prestigious event in professional female bodybuilding.^{[citation needed]}

This article is part of a series about Arnold Schwarzenegger
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History[]

A lucrative sports competition, the ASF offers a number of large prizes. Most notably, first prize in bodybuilding consists of a $130,000 check, a Hummer vehicle, and an Audemars Piguet watch. Since the Mr. Olympia bodybuilding title pre-dates and offers higher prize money than the ASF, a rivalry in prestige and popularity^{[citation needed]} has sprung up. The ASF is always hotly contested, often with one or two competition points separating the winners..

All-star cheerleading competitions span a two-day period (usually all day Saturday, and to midday Sunday). More than 4,000 competitors entered the cheerleading event in 2014. Each team (of 15-30 cheerleaders) prepares to perform a two and one-half minute routine. After the teams' routines are complete, they are scored by a panel of judges, each judge being an expert on one area of cheerleading (jumps, tumbling, stunting, etc.). Once scoring is complete, every team entered in the competition is called to the mat for awards, during which each team has a chance of winning multiple times. The ASF's awards consist of the following: National Champion jackets, trophies for every team, custom medals, limited edition patches and Grand Champion banners, and possible partial or full paid bid to Cheerleading World contests.^[1]

On June 7, 2013, the ASF's event promoter, Jim Lorimer, announced that from 2014 on, the ASF's "212" (a professional, men��s bodybuilding division) would permanently replace the Ms. International women’s bodybuilding competition. Lorimer, in a statement, said “The Arnold Sports Festival was proud to support women’s bodybuilding through the Ms. International for the past quarter century, but in keeping with demands of our fans, the time has come to introduce the Arnold Classic 212 beginning in 2014. We are excited to create a professional competitive platform for some of the IFBB Pro League’s most popular competitors.”^[2]

On March 3, 2020 Ohio governor Mike DeWine cancelled most of the Arnold Sports Festival due to the oncoming COVID-19 pandemic in Ohio, before any cases or deaths had been reported. The cancellation was widely regarded as 'radical' at the time.^[3][4]

Champions[]

Year	Arnold Classic					Ms. International			Fitness International	Figure International	Bikini International	212	Women's Physique	Men's Physique	Classic Physique
	Overall	Best Poser	Most Muscular	Fan's Choice Award	Most Entertaining Routine	Overall	Heavyweight	Lightweight
1989	Rich Gaspari					Jackie Paisley
1990						Laura Creavalle
1991	Shawn Ray					Tonya Knight
1992	Vince Taylor					Anja Schreiner
1993	Flex Wheeler					Kim Chizevsky-Nicholls
1994	Kevin Levrone					Laura Creavalle			Carol Semple-Marzetta
1995						Laura Creavalle			Carol Semple-Marzetta
1996	Kevin Levrone					Kim Chizevsky-Nicholls			Alexandra Béres
1997	Flex Wheeler					Yolanda Hughes-Heying			Carol Semple-Marzetta
1998	Flex Wheeler					Yolanda Hughes-Heying			Susie Curry
1999	Nasser El Sonbaty					Vickie Gates			Susie Curry
2000	Flex Wheeler					Vickie Gates	Vickie Gates	Brenda Raganot	Kelly Ryan
2001	Ronnie Coleman					Vickie Gates	Vickie Gates	Dayana Cadeau	Jenny Worth
2002	Jay Cutler					Yaxeni Oriquen-Garcia	Yaxeni Oriquen-Garcia	Valentina Chepiga	Susie Curry
2003	Jay Cutler					Yaxeni Oriquen-Garcia	Yaxeni Oriquen-Garcia	Cathy LeFrançois	Susie Curry	Jenny Lynn
2004	Jay Cutler					Iris Kyle	Iris Kyle	Dayana Cadeau	Adela Garcia-Friedmansky	Jenny Lynn
2005	Dexter Jackson					Yaxeni Oriquen-Garcia	Yaxeni Oriquen-Garcia	Brenda Raganot	Jen Hendershott	Jenny Lynn
2006	Dexter Jackson					Iris Kyle	Heavyweight category not held.	Lightweight category not held.	Adela Garcia-Friedmansky	Mary Lado
2007	Victor Martinez					Iris Kyle			Kim Klein	Mary Lado
2008	Dexter Jackson					Yaxeni Oriquen-Garcia			Kim Klein	Gina Aliotti
2009	Kai Greene	Kai Greene	Branch Warren			Iris Kyle			Jen Hendershott	Živilė Raudonienė
2010	Kai Greene	Kai Greene	Branch Warren			Iris Kyle			Adela Garcia-Friedmansky	Nicole Wilkins-Lee
2011	Branch Warren	Dennis Wolf	Branch Warren	Branch Warren		Iris Kyle			Adela Garcia-Friedmansky	Nicole Wilkins-Lee	Nicole Nagrani
2012	Branch Warren	Best Poser category not held.	Branch Warren	Fan's Choice Award category not held.	Branch Warren	Yaxeni Oriquen-Garcia			Adela Garcia-Friedmansky	Nicole Wilkins-Lee
2013	Dexter Jackson		Most Muscular category not held.		Most Entertaining Routine category not held.	Iris Kyle
2014	Dennis Wolf					Ms. International category not held.			Oksana Grishina		Ashley Kaltwasser	James Lewis
2015	Dexter Jackson								Oksana Grishina		Ashley Kaltwasser		Juliana Malacarne
2016	Kai Greene								Oksana Grishina			Hidetada Yamagishi
2017	Cedric McMillan								Oksana Grishina
2018[5]			Roelly Winklaar								Angelica Teixeira	Kamal Elgargni
2019[6]	Brandon Curry		William Bonac							Cydney Gillon		212 category not held.		Andre Ferguson
2020[7]	William Bonac		Mamdouh Elssbiay										Natalia Abraham Coelho	Andre Ferguson

Arnold Classic International[]

Arnold Classic is also held as:

• Arnold Classic Europe in Spain (since 2011)^[8]
• Arnold Classic South America in Brazil (since 2013)^[8]
• Arnold Classic Australia in Australia (since 2015)^[8]
• Arnold Classic Africa in South Africa (since 2016)^[8][9]
• Arnold Classic Asia in Hong Kong (only 2016).^[9]

Winners[]

Year	Europe[10]	South America[11]	Australia[12]	Africa[13]	Asia[14]
2011	Victor Martinez[15]	Event not held.	Event not held.	Event not held.	Event not held.
2012	Shawn Rhoden[16]
2013	Phil Heath[17]	Brandon Curry[18]
2014	Dennis Wolf[19]	Steve Kuclo[20]
2015	Dexter Jackson[21]	Mamdouh Elssbiay[22]	Dexter Jackson[23]
2016	Dexter Jackson[24]	Kai Greene[25]	Kai Greene[26]	Dexter Jackson[27]	[28]
2017	Mamdouh Elssbiay[29]	[30]	Brandon Curry[31]	Johnnie O. Jackson[32]	Event not held.
2018	[33]	[34]	Roelly Winklaar[35]	[36]
2019	Michal Krizanek[37]	[38]	William Bonac[39]	Michal Krizanek[40]
2020	Event not held.

See also[]

• Statue of Arnold Schwarzenegger, a statue at the event venue
• Ms. International
• Arnold Strongman Classic

References[]

External links[]

• Official website
• Arnold Classic Europe official website