CANADA'S KEITH KOENIG

United States ArmSports salutes our friend to the North for his years of service to our Sport. Some of his major accomplishments include:

Founder of Arm Sports in Western Canada

Keith started Canadian Wristwrestling Association in 1974.

Ran 20 consecutive Canadian National Wristwrestling Championships from 1975 to 1994.

Joined the Canadian Wristwrestling Association together with the Canadian Armwrestling Federation in 1994 under one umbrella to further the sport of Armwrestling in Canada.

In 1982 he became a Director of the World's Wristwrestling Championship in Petaluma, CA to help further the sport's unification.

In 1990 Keith helped set up Wristwrestling rules to coincide with Armwrestling Rules. Wade Koenig, director of Canadian Wrist Wrestling Association built the tables, adding pegs, for the World's Wristwrestling Championship in Petaluma, CA. These are the same tables used today.

Each year since 1982 Keith has taken a Canadian Team to the World's Wristwrestling Championship in Petaluma, CA.

Keith was invited by Dave Devoto, President of the World's Wristwrestling Championship to attend and bring a small Canadian team to the first major contest held in Russia in 1990. The Gold Bear Tournament has been held for eight years now and Keith has taken a team from Canada each of those eight years. He sat in at the Russian director's meeting and contributed direction as to the sport rules and goals.

Keith was made an Honorary Director of the Russian Arm Wrestling Association.

In 1993 Keith initiated and ran the first International Tournament of Champions. Russia, USA, and Canada participated. Again in July of 1996 this tournament was repeated with great success.

In the past 22 years Keith has been responsible for in excess of 600 tournaments. In his spare time Keith was three times Canadian Heavy Weight Champion.

In 1981 Keith decided to put all efforts into developing the sport. Instead of competing he worked as head referee for 14 years at the U.S.A. World's Wristwrestling Championships and a number of Canadian Championships. Presently he is Master Referee, President of British Columbia Arm Wrestling Association and Vice-President of Canadian Arm Wrestling Federation.

His ultimate goal: Further the unification of this sport on a Provincial, Federal and World level.

From left to right:

Igor Akhmedshin, Fred Roy, Keith Koenig, Dave Devoto, Leonard Harkless and Denise Wattles. Picture taken July 1996 at the Kelowna, Canada International Tournament of Champions.

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