Arm Wrestlers Duke It Out in Bus Station

The sight of two people with their arms bent and their fists clenched together over an open table, testing their strength against each other amid shouts of “take him down!” is no doubt more common to an elementary school playground than a bus station. But this was the scene at the 30th Annual White Castle Empire State Golden Arm Tournament of Champions, an arm wrestling competition held in the North Wing of the Port Authority Bus Terminal Thursday.

Approximately 50 competitors, both amateur and professional, took part in the tournament, accompanied by dozens of spectators. The event was sponsored by the New York Arm Wrestling Association, a 30-year-old group that organizes a handful of arm-wrestling events in and around New York City each year.

The event’s director and commentator Gene Camp moderated the event—adorned with microphone, backwards hat, and sunglasses.

The tournament featured a variety of nationally and internationally ranked arm wrestlers, including New York City’s “Queen of Arms” Mirline Berrouet, who picked up the sport two years ago after joining an after-school arm-wrestling program started by her chemistry teacher. A student at Queens Gateway to Health Sciences Secondary School, she has won two national titles this year alone. Though the event was male-dominated, four women competed in an open weight class, including a Newsday special reporter.

Like Berrouet, most of the tournament’s competitors said they began arm wrestling on a competitive level inadvertently. Charles Link, who has won his weight class in the tournament three years in a row, says he got his start “just playing around with my brothers. One day I went to a tournament, and I won.”

More than just a bar-side battle of might, the secret to arm wrestling, according to professional arm wrestler Kevin Nelson, is not size or strength but technique. “You might see a big guy up there who doesn’t really know arm wrestling and a small guy who really does and you’ll be surprised. You’ll see a smaller guy push him to the mat,” Nelson said.

Berrouet agreed, although he pointed out that one’s technique must vary with his or her opponent. She chooses between a variety of techniques upon “get[ting] up to the table and ... see[ing] how the person sets up and their grip,” she said.

The competition also featured a number of amateurs, both newcomers and veterans alike who have noticed their natural talents for the sport. “The more you arm wrestle, the more you work out and train, the faster you’ll enter the professional ranks,” said six-year amateur wrestler Mitchell D’Onofrio, who travelled from upstate New York for the tournament.

Despite all the intensity and training necessary to win, D’Onofrio says the best arm wrestlers truly love the sport. “If you’re just in it to win, you might have a short career because it’s a humbling sport. There’s always someone better. Even the spectacular gentlemen that are here today, when they’ll go to a national or a world competition, there’s normally always someone a little better than you. It’s the sort of thing you have to have a passion for and a thing you want to love.”

Simone Foxman can be reached at news@columbiaspectator.com.