On December 22nd, the 2012 IFBB Arnold Classic & Ms International Invite list was officially released to the public. The list was issued by Arnold Sport Festival Communications Officer, Brent LaLonde. After reading through the names, I wondered how these athletes had been selected. Was there some sort of system in place. This year, I decided I would get to the bottom of it!
Eligibility for the Arnold is determined after submitting a written request to the IFBB Office, assuming an athlete is up-to-date with their IFBB Pro Card fees of $200/year. The athlete should then follow up with a more thorough application to the Arnold Sports Festival office. There is no set application, but it is suggested that the athlete list their past contest placings and list any other accomplishments, awards, or associations that may enhance their chance of being selected. Most athletes generally include pictures, as well.
Brent LaLonde informed me of the next step in the process: “We probably have a list of 20 to 25 athletes that want to compete at the event. We then take that list of those athletes and send them off to a panel of industry experts... Guys like Steve Blechman of Muscular Development, Robin Chang of AMI & Weider, Peter McGough (Former Editor and Chief of FLEX)... Those type of guys. Some are experts in the men’s field, some are experts in the women’s field. We ask those experts to rank the athletes whether they are ‘must invite’, ‘should invite’, ‘not ready yet’, or ‘don’t know the athlete’.”
After the experts submit their athlete rankings, the rankings are then turned into scores. Lalonde continues, “Mr. Lorimer and our office look at those tallies, and he adds his input, and we narrow those 20 to 25 down to 14 to 17 per division, and the list that was released right before Christmas is the result of that process.”
I asked Brent what the most important factor was in selecting athletes. His response was simple, “The competitive history of the athlete is the driving factor of who gets into the show and who doesn’t.”
LaLonde continued, “There are some other factors as well... When you see some names on the list that you don’t recognize, they may be past Arnold Amateur winners. If you win the Overall title in your division at the Arnold Amateur and go on to earn an IFBB Pro card, you are guaranteed a spot at the Arnold Pro.”
The first paragraph in the press release stated:
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Branch Warren will return to the competitive stage for the first time in nearly a year when he defends his title at the 24th Annual Arnold Classic at the 2012 Arnold Sports Festival.
It’s never smart to doubt Branch Warren, but I cannot deny I was surprised to read this. By the time the Arnold comes around in March, it will have only been approximately 7 months since he tore his right quadriceps tendon. This happened while getting into his car in Atlanta before a guest posing. I asked Lalonde if Branch was automatically on the list because he won last year or if he specifically requested to be on the list. LaLonde informed me that Branch contacted the IFBB Pro League and expressed interest in making his comeback at the 2012 Arnold Classic. Now that he’s been selected, Lalonde and company fully expect to see Warren onstage in March.
I would like to thank Brent LaLonde for answering all my questions. You can hear the rest of what he had to say on this week’s ACCESS BODYBUILDING (
http://www.rxmuscle.com/access-bodybuilding/4791-jefftheproducer-accessbodybuilding-v15-4081.html).
