How Lebanon is taking arm wrestling to the Gulf

Michel Saloumi looked down, unflinching as his chalk-coated right palm was being firmly fixed to that of his opponent. The burly man, aged 20, leaned forwards, elbow pushed down into the padded table, bicep flexing as he held his stance on the stage. He was ready for battle.

There was a lot at stake; Saloumi had travelled from his home in Baskinta to the Champs Gym in southern Beirut to prove himself as the "strongest arm" from his region and for a chance to get into the national team.

He was one of dozens of arm wrestlers who descended on the Lebanese capital on December 12 for the LAW 4 qualifications day, organised by the Lebanese Arm Wrestling Federation. There were 12 prizes up for grabs, a heavyweight and lightweight competition for each of the five regions in Lebanon and a category for the armed forces.

Each match-up was officiated by two referees on an elevated stage in front of a live audience. Below, a crowd patiently watched on as the referees agonisingly constructed a “referee’s grip” between the two competitors, the arm wrestlers’ hands tightly bound together with a red strap.

“Ready, go!” a referee shouted hurriedly and stepped back.

In one seamless motion, Saloumi locked his shoulder, elbow and wrist. He rocked down to his left, pulling his opponent’s hand with him and pressed it into the table. It was all over in less than a second.

“I tried to contain his top roll, and then I entered the hook and delivered the final blow,” Saloumi told The National.

Saloumi roared through his Covid-19 protective mask, his celebration awkward and stifled as the referees untied his hand from his defeated opponent before signalling his victory. Once free, he marched off triumphant, advancing through to the next round.

As players waited to face-off under the bright lights of the competition stage, they warmed up and tussled on the practice tables. Those who had been eliminated from the competition tried their chances against players from other regions.

“I love arm wrestling,” said Saloumi. “It’s a simple game to play, but it's also technical, and complicated. You have to know what your opponent is trying to do. I love it.”

Watching on was the event organiser and the godfather of modern arm wrestling in Lebanon, Karim El Andary, who is occasionally called upon to settle disputes at the table when a decision is unclear.

A former basketball player, El Andary founded the Lebanese Arm Wrestling Federation in 2016, the first of its kind in the Middle East, with the ambitious vision to progress the sport from an age-old pastime to Lebanon’s national sport.

“Our grandfathers and our fathers used to play arm wrestling in the mountains, between friends and families,” he says. “We need a kind of free sport where everyone can compete, from steelworkers to schoolteachers.”

In only a few years, arm wrestling has taken root in Lebanon, giving birth to a community of competitive clubs, training programmes for athletes, referees and dedicated coaches and advocates.

“We started to build the federation, and now we have had 762 players who competed in our league this year,” says El Andary, proudly.

El Andary has every reason to be pleased with his accomplishments, having spent the best part of the last decade travelling throughout Lebanon providing seminars and training sessions, organising events and competitions, while attracting sponsors. Even with the several postponements and cancellations of tournaments during the coronavirus pandemic, El Andary has fostered a community of dedicated arm wrestlers.

“This is my duty, my mission, my future, my daily life. I am pushing this sport to another level,” El Andary says.

Saloumi won his remaining matches on December 12 to join the 11 other regional winners at the national finals on December 26. On that day, the champions of each region faced off for a coveted place in the national team.

The event, which is called LAW 4, was broadcast on Lebanese National TV, on which El Andary commentated.

As well as the finals, LAW 4 showcased the first international Arab v Arab "super match", a best-of-five competition pitting the top national arm wrestlers in Lebanon and Jordan against one another.

In front of an enthused home crowd, the Lebanese team came out on top in both the lightweight and heavyweight competitions, with the 136-kilogram Georges “Big B” Bejjani, aged 17, capping off the night by bowling over Jordanian heavyweight champion, Tarek Olayyan, in three straight rounds.

It was a huge success for El Andary, not least because his champions dominated, but also because the event was the first international fixture, he says, of which there are many more to come.

In 2020, El Andary founded the Arab Armwrestling Federation. His mission was to take the sport to 22 countries in the region, he says, with the ultimate goal of forming an Arab League.

With a long history of popularity of strength and combat sports throughout the region, arm wrestling has the potential to thrive, he says. El Andary’s primary target has been making progress in developing the sport’s network and infrastructure in the UAE.

Over a series of trips in 2020 and 2021, El Andary has had productive meetings and seminars with Emirates Bodybuilding & Fitness Federation president Sheikh Abdulla Bin Hamad Al Sharqi and the head of arm wrestling committee Faisal Al Zaabi. The UAE has since become the first country to join Lebanon in the Arab Armwrestling Federation.

“Now it is expanding and we are looking to start with the first UAE arm wrestling championships in 2022,” he says. "We need to know who is the strongest arm in the UAE.”

Back in Beirut, an elated Saloumi won his place in the national team, scoring a narrow victory as his opponent was judged to have fouled in the final round.

“I have been working on this for three years, and I have finally got it,” said Saloumi. “Now I am in the Lebanese national team, and will work towards competing outside against other countries.”

As Saloumi, Bejjani and the other victors posed for selfies with fans and supporters on the main stage, a crowd of spectators gathered around one of the practice tables in the shadows of the competition hall, taking turns to compete.

Whether arm wrestling becomes Lebanon’s national sport remains to be seen. Yet, with its ever-surging popularity and with new ground to be broken in the region, the sport is only set to go from strength to strength.

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