Video:  Female Armwrestling

Armwrestling History

Armwrestling is a sport that has been around for centuries. They found a frieze in an Ancient Egyptian tomb that appears to be an armwrestling match.

In the Old West, they called it "Indian Wrestling" because it was a game that the Native Americans played.

In armwrestling the two opponents sit across the table from one another, lock hands, place their elbows firmly on the table, grab a peg with their free hand & at the starting sign each tries to force the other's wrist down to the table. (In wrist wrestling the technique is the same, except the wrestlers lock their free hands together across the table.)

In the US in 1952, a young journalist named Bill Soberanes began matches in Gilardi's saloon in Petaluma, CA. Ten years later he teamed with Dave Devoto and formed World's Wristwrestling Championship, Inc. and took wristwrestling to the next level. It wasn't a sport just in California any longer.

In 1969 they arranged to have the championships aired on The Wide World of Sports. This publicity made the sport known all over the globe, and now today we have the World Armsport Federation (WAF) in many countries.

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