Arnold Schwarzenegger discussed many current events around the sport of bodybuilding.
Bodybuilding legend Arnold Schwarzenegger has worked for decades to help grow the sport of bodybuilding. He has increased the prize money for the Arnold Classic in recent years in hopes of building the world’s biggest fitness expo. Recently, he discussed what led to this increase in prize money, along with other topics in bodybuilding.
During as announcement on Instagram, Schwarzenegger shared that the 2026 Arnold Classic will feature a $1.5 million prize purse. This includes $750,000 to the Men’s Open champion.
“We’ve raised enough money where we can give away, as a matter of face. This coming year, we’re going to up it to a million and a half dollars. All kinds of great things are happening.”
This will be a historic purse on bodybuilding. The $750k prize will be the largest ever that a winner will take home. Schwarzenegger discussed where the money will come from and the work he will do in order to keep raising the bar.
“Sponsors. So now I have to go out and hassle the sponsors. Now, of course, we have the biggest fitness and bodybuilding convention is Columbus, Ohio in the world. We have 200,000 people coming through there in three days.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger Speaks on Prejudice in Bodybuilding
Schwarzenegger has been an icon in the fitness world for decades now. He has seen it all in terms of bodybuilding and this dates back to his professional debut. Arnold was there in the Golden Era and he believes that there was no prejudice in the sport — largely in part because of the work done by the Weiders.
“That’s the great things about bodybuilding, there was no prejudice. There were some people in bodybuilding that were prejudiced but in general, especially under the Weiders. The Weiders, I think because they were Jewish, I think it had something to do with the face that they were that kind of open-minded about it.”
Of course, not everyone followed suit. Arnold continued to discuss experiences in other organizations such as the AAU. He claims that there was a prejudice in the sport where the federation would set it up for the white competitors to win.
“There was a guy by the name of Bob Hoffman. He always made sure that when they had the AAU when they had the Mr. America competition, only whites could win…That was really embarrassing.
There were guys like Sergio Oliva that would be competing in the 1965 or 1966 in the Mr. America and he would get beaten by while guys and it was totally unfair.”
The allure of the Arnold Classic has been taken up a notch in recent years with Schwarzenegger adding prize money. Last year, reigning Mr. Olympia Samson Dauda battled the likes of Derek Lunsford and Andrew Jacked. Previously, Dauda was taken down by Hadi Choopan in another memorable battle on stage in Columbus.
Arnold wants to continue to grow his sports festival, which is one of the biggest in the world. He has made it clear that he wants to be at the top of bodybuilding and that is the goal once again.
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