Arm wrestling: Could African Games exposure lead to Olympic Games inclusion?

For most people arm wrestling is just a way to show off your strength at school or in a bar rather than being seen as a competitive sport.

Yet, according to the Ultimate Armwrestling League, the discipline has a history dating back more than 4,000 years.

This year, the sport made its debut at the African Games, with a total of 28 gold medals dished out at the continental showpiece held in Accra, Ghana.

Experts say concentration and skill count more than brawn during a showdown at the table.

“You don’t have to be the strongest to be the best,” Rosemary Botha, president of the South African Armwrestling Federation (SAAF), told BBC Sport Africa.

“It is about knowing what to do with what you have.

“You could take someone who lifts weights that would make most of us cry, but put him against one of our arm wrestlers who is maybe 100 kilograms lighter and that guy will beat him based on the fact that he has more technique.

“It’s about using all your muscles at the same time and going in directions which may be unnatural.”

Botha took the sport up seriously in 2007 and has become a maternal figure in South African arm wrestling, mentoring others through the Supernova Club based at her home in Springs, Gauteng.

“I was terrible when I started but I just loved that camaraderie, that opportunity to try and be better than the next person,” she said.

“I arm-wrestled against body builders who had these big muscles. I was this not-so-conditioned little fat girl. I actually was able to stop them.

“I realised that if I actually put some effort in I might be able to also beat them.”

Botha became a multiple national champion and represented her country at the World Armwrestling Championship. Now she is channelling her efforts into growing the sport.

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