Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of the most recognizable human beings on the planet. ‘Conan the Barbarian’ was released in 1982, grossing $100 million and was the hit of the summer. Arnold followed it up with the blockbuster movie and sequel ‘The Terminator’ and ‘The Terminator 2: Judgment Day’ in 1984 and 1991.
In 1989 Arnold decided to attach his name to bodybuilding competitions he had been hosting in Columbus, Ohio for almost twenty years.
Columbus and Arnold go way back thanks to Jim Lorimer.
The World Weightlifting Championships had never been held in the United States prior to 1970. Then Columbus, Ohio won the bid to host the prestigious event and quickly appointed savvy local Nationwide executive & bodybuilder Jim Lorimer as director.
ABC’s ‘Wide World of Sports’ committed to cover the event. The dominoes began to fall in place. Lorimer – an experienced promoter – decided to add bodybuilding because of its draw, naming it the Pro Mr. World contest. He then set about inviting the six top bodybuilders in the world including then world best Cuban Sergio Oliva ‘The Myth’ and 22-yr-old Austrian phenom Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Jim had a law degree from Penn State and ran the AAU National Weightlifting & Powerlifting Championships in Columbus in 1967. He also served as chairman of the U.S. Women’s Olympic committee for track & field.
Lorimer tracked down Arnold – finding him in a Gold’s Gym in California. Arnold told Jim he wanted to come but he had an obligation that weekend to compete at the NABBA Universe contest in London. Undeterred, Lorimer told Arnold if he competed on the Saturday of that weekend in London, he could catch the last flight out to New York, pick up five hours in the process, and he would have a plane waiting for him to get him here. Arnold agreed.
Schwarzenegger had won his first Mr. Universe title in 1967 at the age of 20.
There were six competitors on stage at Veteran’s Memorial Auditorium at that first event. Then Arnold & Sergio started matching shots. It became known as the ‘Posedown’. The crowd of four thousand people on hand loved it. Everyone locked their eyes on those two. They were clearly the two most fit.
Arnold beat Sergio Oliva and would later say winning this event changed his life. The posedown would become a regular presentation part of bodybuilding competition. Arnold’s take home prize money: $500 and a new watch.
Schwarzenegger saw firsthand how well the event was run and how well Jim treated the athletes. He decided then & there that he would work with Lorimer at some point to elevate the sport of bodybuilding. Arnold said, “It was one of those magical moments, and it was destiny that we met, but it was Jim’s fanatical commitment to sports and fitness that laid the foundation for our fate.”
“I’ll be back.”
Meanwhile, after Columbus, Arnold Schwarzenegger dominated the next five years in world bodybuilding competitions. He won bodybuilding’s triple crown – Mr. Universe, Pro Mr. World and Mr. Olympia competitions. In fact, Schwarzenegger lost only three bodybuilding competitions in his career – and each time it was second place. Arnold was king.
And Schwarzenegger stayed true to his word. In 1975 (the same year he made ‘Pumping Iron’) after his final competition in South Africa, Arnold flew to New York and called Jim Lorimer. They met at a Holiday Inn in Columbus to visit & strategize.
Lorimer and Arnold agreed to collaborate on the Mr. Olympia event (the Super Bowl of bodybuilding) to be held in Columbus in 1976. Lorimer put together the organization while Arnold got the sponsors and athletes to participate. Arnold raised the first place prize to $10,000 (ten times what he ever made). His goal in three years was to get that prize to $100,000. Which he did.
He and Arnold would partner to host similar events in Columbus almost annually until the ‘Arnold Classic’ was born in 1989. Their competition offered the highest cash prize in the sport.
In 1991, the Arnold Classic expanded to include other sports. The fitness expo that runs in conjunction with the Arnold Classic grew to seven hundred booths with a waiting list. The number of athletes who participate became bigger than the summer & winter Olympics combined.
Arnold attends his ‘Classic’ every year, staying at the Great Southern Hotel. His security detail has grown with his popularity. He usually gets a police escort for his stretch limo.
In 2002, Jim Lorimer received the Arnold Classic Lifetime Achievement Award.
The Arnold Classic has seven hundred volunteers and one hundred fifty medical staff on hand. It has grown to be the largest multi sports event in the world with eighty sports events, 22,000 athletes from eighty nations and 220,000 attendees.
In 2011, Arnold had Idaho sculptor Ralph Crawford create three bronze statues of himself – all eight feet tall and weighing 600 pounds. One was shipped to his hometown of Thal, Austria where his boyhood home has been turned into a museum; one was sent to Arnold himself in California; and the third was sent to Columbus, Ohio, dedicated in 2014 striking his championship pose in front of the Columbus Convention Center on High Street.
Crawford (known as Rodin) also made a bronze miniature version of the bodybuilding champ – a special trophy – given to the winning athletes every year.
Jim Lorimer passed away on Nov 24, 2022. He was 96.
Arnold Schwarzenegger called Jim the most selfless individual he’d ever met. “When I met him…at the Mr. World bodybuilding championship he organized so fantastically in Columbus, Ohio (1970), I immediately knew Jim would be a big part of my life,” said Arnold. “He’s one reason I would never call myself self-made.”
The Arnold has had a major impact on Columbus – helping force the expansion of the Greater Columbus Convention Center, building the first Hilton Hotel and expanding it to one thousand rooms.
The 2026 Arnold Sports Festival (March 5 – 8) will feature 20,000 athletes competing in body building, combat and fitness and this year – for the first time – include a pickleball invitational. For tickets, go to www.arnoldsports.com.
Sources: James J. Lorimer, columbus.gov; Arnold Sports Festival co-founder Jim Lorimer dies by Jim Weiker, Columbus Dispatch, dispatch.com, Nov 25, 2022; Jim J Lorimer, Obituary, dignitymemorial.com; ‘Remembering Jim Lorimer’ video, Facebook, Nov 24, 2024; ‘Thank you, Jim’ by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nov 24, 2022, medium.com; ‘Remembering James Lorimer, Worthington mayor and more, worthingtonmemory.org, January, 2023; ‘Jim Lorimer’s legacy leaves a lasting mark on Columbus’ by Dave Ghose, July 3, 2023, columbusceo.com; ‘The man who helped Arnold build his classic’, YouTube, Bodybuilding.com, June 23, 2016; Columbus Uncovered by John M. Clark, 2019; ‘Jim Lorimer: the Iron Game’s Greatest Promoter’ by Jim Murray, December, 1998, Iron Game History, digital.la84.org; Arnold: the early years – the unauthorized biography by Wendy Leigh, 1991; Arnold – the education of a bodybuilder by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Douglas Kent Hall, 1977; Schwarzenegger.it; Featured picture is courtesy of the Arnold Sports Festival.