Laura Park returned to Jasper with a medal around her neck last week, after finishing third in the National Arm Wrestling Championships earlier this month.
Competing in the heavyweight division, Park put both arms to the test and came out on top with her dominant: the right.
“I thought, ‘I came all this way, I might as well compete with both,’” she said following the May 18 competition in Charlottetown, PEI. “I got my butt kicked with my left. I beat two women and then it was just downhill from there.”
It wasn’t smooth sailing for her right arm, either. In her first match, she lost to Lori Pow, who Park described as “the woman to beat in Canada right now.”
And with that loss, she was immediately placed on the B side, which means she had to win her way back up.
“I took the long way,” she said with a laugh. It took 13 matches in six hours for her to take the bronze medal.
“It was boom, boom, boom, go, go, go all day long.”
Then came the best part of her trip—a moment she never could have anticipated or imagined. While waiting for the medal ceremony, the announcer started talking about his own mentor in the sport: Park’s dad, Murray.
Murray Park, who passed away 14 years ago, was a huge advocate for arm wrestling, pushing to have it recognized as a professional sport and working hard to get it out of the bars. It was because of him that his daughter picked up arm wrestling and that she now advocates for it as well.
So when her dad’s name was mentioned, Park’s emotions got the better of her.
“I started crying in the crowd,” she recalled with a smile. “So I went up to thank Butcher, [the announcer]. I tapped him on the shoulder, and was like ‘Hi.’ And he was like, ‘Hello.’ And I was like, ‘I’m Murray Park’s daughter and I just wanted to say thank you so much for the speech,’ and then he started crying and I wasn’t expecting that at all and I started crying.
“After 14 years, I was so honoured to hear my dad’s name still being talked about. It was awesome. That definitely made the trip.”
Park—who’s lived in Jasper since 2009 and works for SunDog Tours—captured her spot in the national competition earlier this year after winning all of her 13 matches in the provincial championships in Red Deer.
Following that win, she spent her time training in hopes of capturing the national heavyweight championship, so she could compete at the 36th annual World Arm Wrestling Championships in Lithuania.
With her third place finish, she isn’t eligible to compete in the worlds unless Pow, who finished in second place with her right arm and first with her left, choses not to compete with her right.
And, according to Park, that was a choice that Pow was happy to make.
“She came up to me after ... and she said to me that she wants me to go, so A: she’s not competing as many times and B: for experience. But, I said to her, ‘I would love to go, but realistically, I have a two-year-old son, so that’s a lot.’”
So instead of making the trip to Lithuania, Park, who was sponsored by Paul Hardy at SunDog Tours, as well as the Athabasca Hotel and a few of her coworkers, is now setting her sights on next year’s nationals in Vancouver, as well as the next competition in Edmonton: Mayhem in the Mall.
It was there last winter that she reentered the sport, and she hasn’t looked back since.
Nicole Veerman[email protected]
