FIST PUMP

AUSTIN JAGGERS WINS NATIONAL ARM-WRESTLING TOURNAMENT

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Austin Jaggers has always been an intimidating force. On the playground growing up, other kids were scared to challenge him in any type of physical contest.

“I was always the big, strong kid no one ever wanted to touch,” Jaggers says. “I never got to have any fun.”

Jaggers is making up for lost time now. A friend entered Jaggers into a local arm-wrestling tournament in 2016, and he quickly took to the sport, finishing second.

“The first tournament I ever went to I didn’t even enter myself into it,” Jaggers says. “My friend signed me up and I had no idea he put me in an arm-wrestling contest. The guy who beat me called me a liar, saying that I had arm wrestled before. I got a lot more interested after that.”

Now, Jaggers is well-known in the arm-wrestling community. In just his second year in the sport, he won a national amateur tournament and turned professional soon after. Recently, he had perhaps his biggest tournament win to date, winning the Arnold Classic in Columbus, OH. Jaggers said he was surprised to come out victorious as the competition was with his right-hand, when he is generally stronger with his left.

“The Arnold is one of the biggest international competitions in the world,” Jaggers says. “There were 16 countries there and it was an incredible experience. I wasn’t expecting to win it at all, and I didn’t lose one match. There were people there I thought I would lose to. People said don’t think that way, but I was trying to be realistic. But I won and it was awesome. I worked my butt off for it.”

The Arnold title shows Jaggers fast progress through the sport. After winning the amateur tournament, Jaggers was forced to turn professional in order to continue competing and struggled facing off against much more experienced arm wrestlers initially.

“When you win nationals in amateurs, you can never enter that again,” he says. “I couldn’t enter another amateur tournament, so I had to go pro. My whole third and fourth year I just got destroyed because I wasn’t on that level. I won the nationals because I was on a good level against other guys just getting into the sport, but when I locked up with pros, I was getting slammed. After about two years, I started slowing people down and having good matches. It was a lot of hard work and consistency.”

Jaggers journey with arm wrestling continues a long-standing relationship with competing and athletics. Raised in Louisville, Jaggers attended Holy Cross High School where he played both offensive and defensive line on the football team and was an all-conference selection his senior year while earning a spot in the Kentucky East-West All-Star Game. He was also a member of the