Armwrestling takes femininity from women – some say. But is it only a man’s sport? According to Marta Opalińska, a Polish armwrestler, this is just another stereotype.

Women fear strength training, because they don’t want to grow too much muscle, which is a misconception. – says Marta. We train with weights specifically for armwrestling, we build some muscle, but we keep within weight categories and keep our female shapes. We are no mutants, that is just stereotype and should be totally ignored. Thanks to weights we make our bodies more firm, and machine training shapes our bodies.

In Poland, arwrestling and weightlifting are dominated by men. It’s very different in Sweden, where women are in the lead in the strength sports.

It’s all because Pipi Lansztrung (Longstocking) – jokingly says Heidi Andersson, Swedish armwrestler. – You remember her, a girl with sticking up, ginger hair in braids? But seriously – a lot of women in Sweden are very strong, in boxing, wrestling as well as armwrestling. It’s normal for us to train in such disciplines from a very early age. We have a lot of women on high levels in sport, an little girls wanting to be like them. I myself started competing as a child, it’s part of my life and of who I am.

People are usually surprised by Venera’s chosen sport; especially men – that’s why she tries to keep it quiet.

When people find out I’m in armwrestling, they tend to start asking a lot of questions – says Venera Urazgildeeva, former Russian armwrestler and a WAF referee. – And I’ve been doing this my whole life, so I’d like to change the subject from time to time. And besides – I’d like to impress others as a human, not as a world champ.

When a man lifts weights or trains armwrestling, it’s no surprise to anyone. A woman, on the other hand, always raises eyebrows in the same situation. Why is that?

Some are surprised, some maybe jealous? I on the other hand like women who go to the gym and use small weights to shape their bodies – says Patryk Weterle, armwrestler. – These women are often very beautiful, take Ola Zwolak, for example, whom I’d like to give my warmest regards to. I think that only some people really don’t like fit women. I myself love to watch a woman do deadlifts, squats or leg press. Also, men are afraid of stronger women.

Iza Małkowska