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http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/8441968p-9371211c.html
Governor savors his power play
It's clear who stars at Arnold Fitness Weekend -- an event in which spirits, weights and egos all get lifted.
By Margaret Talev -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 a.m. PST Sunday, March 7, 2004
COLUMBUS, Ohio -
Amid booths pitching protein powders, tanning oils and steroid therapies at the Greater Columbus Convention Center stands a chain-link fence pen called "The Cage."
An audience packed with adolescent boys crowds the perimeter while, inside, unnaturally large men with shaven, waxed heads heave gargantuan barbells. "Squat 'Til You Puke" reads a banner tied to the fencing.
"Seven-hundred pounds, come on!" an emcee prompts. "Give me some energy, come on!" One of the weight lifters groans, the blood rushing to his cheeks as he lifts.
It's all part of this year's Arnold Fitness Weekend, a three-day extravaganza that now-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and sports promoter Jim Lorimer started in 1989 as a men's bodybuilding contest called the Arnold Classic. Over the years, it has expanded to include everything from the Ms. International bodybuilding contest to children's gymnastics, table tennis and a strong man show.
Schwarzenegger comes annually and often brings his own children. It is a weekend close to his heart in a town he has adopted as his own.
He is an investor in a regional shopping mall. He donated a tank, from his time in the Austrian military, to a local museum. He raises money here for local after-school programs.
"No matter what I do, if it is acting or if it is business or if it is politics, I will always be a bodybuilder," he told thousands of fans who turned out to hear him speak on Saturday. "I wouldn't be where I am if it wouldn't be for bodybuilding," he told reporters backstage. "So it's nice to come back to my roots."
When he and Lorimer started their fitness event, Schwarzenegger already was an icon in the bodybuilding world, a former Mr. Olympia who mass-popularized the sport in the 1975 documentary "Pumping Iron."
As his action film career took off, the weekend in Columbus became a bigger and bigger draw. Schwarzenegger's recent ascent as a populist political figure has only deepened the loyalty of his core fan base.
"I totally admire him," said Sansi Ryan, 51, one of thousands of fans who waited patiently in line for the chance to have a Polaroid snapped with Schwarzenegger.
Ten years ago, a brief conversation with Schwarzenegger at a similar photo-op changed Vinny Galanti's life. The 36-year-old from New Jersey, now a personal trainer and a sales representative for Universal Nutrition, had won the Mr. USA middleweight class the year before and was complaining to Schwarzenegger that no one had called him with job offers.
"Why should anyone call you?" Galanti recalls Schwarzenegger telling him. "You make the phone calls. Nothing happens unless you do it."
Schwarzenegger told Galanti to concentrate on how to turn his win into a profit. "He said, 'You can make a living off of it.' And I have. Literally, this two-minute conversation inspired me to get where I am today."
Now that Schwarzenegger is governor, it's harder for his fans to make small talk with him. His security detail surrounds him at all times, whisking him from one event to the next. Between the fund-raisers, competitions, speeches and a couple of private dinner and family events, his schedule has been overbooked since he landed here Friday.
The fitness weekend was expected to draw 11,000 competitors and another 70,000 spectators from around the world, as well as its share of celebrities. Schwarzenegger's own bodybuilding hero, Reg Park, showed up. So did Sylvester Stallone and Lou Ferrigno, who played the Incredible Hulk on TV.
Parents with children in tow mingle with retirees who took up weight training to stay healthy. There are legions of eye-turning men and women, their bodies defined and cut. Dozens of hot, young, scantily clad women staff many of the exhibitor booths.
The event also attracts its share of fringe characters and wannabes. Men covered in tattoos and multiple piercings flaunt exposed quads and biceps. Some women wear gold-lame bodysuits and boots. Others look like men in drag, with facial hair, deep voices and thick necks suggesting steroid or hormone use.
Products sold and advertised run the gamut, from nutrition bars and vitamins to human growth hormone and steroids that can't be sold on site because they require a prescription.
One of the companies advertising the latter is HGH Worldwide. CEO Michael Ahders, who was staffing his exhibit, said his products are safe if used properly. Black market products are the problem, he said. His company has its own doctors, who test clients' blood and check liver and kidney functions before prescribing any therapy.
"I think the media has manipulated things to make people believe it's so dangerous," he said. "If used properly, no one runs into any trouble."
The International Federation of Body Builders prohibits performance enhancers such as diuretics and steroids; the federation randomly tests competitors, and those who come up positive for prohibited substances can be disqualified and fined.
But Wayne Demilia, chairman of the pro division of the IFBB, said the tests only pick up certain drugs, making enforcement arbitrary and largely ineffective.
"The testing procedures are so far behind what's out there, it's laughable," Demilia said. "There's so many things you can't detect."
Backstage at the women's bodybuilding event Friday night, Demilia said financial incentives fuel athletes' drug use. "You take the money out of sports and you'll eliminate a large percentage of the drugs," he said.
Later that night, though, Demilia told the audience that the Arnold Classic was getting bigger than ever. He said he hoped the top prizes - $100,000 and a Hummer - would grow even larger in the future.
John Hoberman, a University of Texas professor who has written frequently about doping in sports, says Schwarzenegger, who used steroids early in his career, bears some responsibility for the use of performance enhancements in the industry.
"When you think about it, Arnold Schwarzenegger probably has done more than anyone on Earth to promote steroid use in the general population," Hoberman said. "'Pumping Iron' popularized a male body that is impossible to achieve without steroids. Is he at the Arnold Classic to promote this sort of behavior or caution against it?"
Schwarzenegger, who this weekend announced he will take on industry consulting duties as executive editor of Muscle and Fitness and Flex magazines, said in an interview Saturday that he's very much against drug use in the sport today. He said he wants to change the culture of the industry so that vitamins and nutritional supplements are considered sufficient.
"I know that there's just athletes that when you look at them they're on something, but you know, you test them and the test shows otherwise, so it's a frustrating thing," he said.
Asked whether all the products advertised at his event - and in the magazines he will be advising - are safe or appropriate, he seemed torn.
"I wouldn't want my kids to take anything that is bad, period," he said. "But that doesn't mean it shouldn't be sold. Because as long as it is legal, it can be sold."
Schwarzenegger said he wants to make bodybuilding "a sport that deals with aesthetics and with beauty like you see in the Greek sculptures and Roman sculptures and all this, like it was in the early days."
Changing the scoring system in bodybuilding competitions, he said, would reduce the importance of size and place "more emphasis on posing and on athletic ability so that not the biggest guy wins but the guy that performs the best."
"What we need is to kind of revamp the whole thing," he said. "That's what I will be stressing in the future. Because it's an unbelievably great sport. It's healthy if you do it the right way."
Controversy and the future of the industry aside, the weekend was a chance for bodybuilding enthusiasts to appreciate those at the top of their game, men and women alike.
At the Ms. International contest on Friday, 31-year-old bodybuilder Iris Kyle showed off her oaklike calves, her chiseled buttocks, her massive shoulders.
Her dark skin glistened against her sequined turquoise bathing suit. Stage lights flashed and the music pumped. There were oohs and aahs as she flexed.
When Kyle, who lives in Southern California, took top prize, Schwarzenegger appeared on stage to congratulate her. The crowd went wild.
As Schwarzenegger shared the spotlight with Kyle, he in a suit and she slicked in sweat, all his accomplishments came together.
"Congratulations," Kyle told the governor, beaming as she gasped for air. "I voted for you."
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