By Bill Dobbins

Every year, the Arnold Weekend virtually takes over the city of Columbus for the better part of a week. In terms of size, complexity and attendance, it is a bigger event than the Olympia Weekend, including as it does a variety of other sports (such as weightlifting and martial arts). "The Arnold" has grown to be the second largest annual event in Columbus after the horse show. However, as Arnold himself has commented, he doesn't mind the horse show being bigger since it involves much bigger competitors.

Over the years, Arnold and promoter Jim Lorimer have refined the organization of the weekend to the point where it is easily the best-run event on the bodybuilding calendar. As far as the press is concerned, things have vastly improved as the too-stringent security has relaxed to a more realistic level and less intrusion from "VIP" attendees getting in the way of photo coverage with their point-and-shoot cameras.

Even the traditional weak point of the Arnold - the stage lighting - has been vastly improved so that the audience and television still got a good show but the still photographers were much better able to shoot the competitors on stage. (More people see the contest through still photos than attend or watch competition videos - and increasingly they are seeing them on the Web.)

Organization, transportation, contest staging, additional events, security, lighting, and quality of competition - the Arnold remains the standard by which all other pro physique contests are measured.

In terms of physique, the weekend featured the Arnold Classic for the male pros and, for the first time, three different events for women: the Ms. International for pro female bodybuilders, Pro Fitness and the recently added Pro Figure division. The only problem with this is that the three divisions are being treated virtually equally in terms of time on stage and prize money. Considering how long established female bodybuilding is and how long the pros have had to work to get to this level, does it really make sense that the newly-establish figure division - which is almost by definition a "beauty contest" - be given equal time, prize money and status?

It also remains to be seen whether figure creates the same kind of devoted fan base as does bodybuilding. In the past, the federations, physique magazines and most promoters have tended to deny the degree to which bodybuilders attract a loyal and dedicated following - and ticket-buying public - in comparison to fitness. Now the same thing seems to be happening with figure.

Prejudging for all the women's contests was held on the floor of the Expo at the Convention Center. There were no special tickets needed to see the competitions. Anyone attending the Expo was invited to watch. This year there seemed to be a good size audience on hand, although seating is limited so most had to stand and watch from the back or the sides. Nonetheless they got a pretty good show and didn't have to pay extra for it. The downside to this is that there is no ticket sale revenue for women's prejudging, which helps to limit the prize money available for bodybuilding, fitness and figure.

Given how crowded the Expo is becoming (now almost as well-attended on Friday as on Saturday or Sunday) a much larger audience was on hand for prejudging in 2003 than in the past. It helped that the IFBB decided not to hold the bodybuilding and fitness prejudging simultaneously in different halls, as was the case last year, making it impossible for fans (or the press) to see both. Evidently, Wayne Demilia decided that the amount of time the judges would be required to spend officiating at prejudging shouldn't be a priority in determining where and when the judging of the various divisions would be scheduled.

One nice innovation at prejudging was the presence of two large video screens, one on each side above the stage. This no doubt helped a lot of the fans standing near the back to have a much better view of the competitions than they otherwise would have.

In terms of contest coverage, my situation was compromised by being given the worst photo seat assignment ever at the Arnold. Web photographers, I was told, are at the bottom of the list compared to anybody shooting for any print magazine, no matter how humble or obscure. Fortunately, some photographers with assigned seats were absent so I was eventually able to move to an improved location.

This failure to recognize the growing importance of the Internet to bodybuilding is somewhat surprising, since the Arnold itself has a superior website - probably the best in the entire sport. Certainly, anyone reading this report or viewing the available photos is able to do so months in advance of when the same material will be available in print -

and will stay available on line long after the magazine coverage is no longer on the newsstands. So while I appreciate the help and support of the Arnold press relations staff, I would suggest rethinking the policy regarding website event coverage.