Posted on 12/29/2005 9:08:20 PM PST by jmc1969
Mr. Schwarzenegger may find himself politically embattled these days in his home state, but here he is still a major draw. Along Saddoun Street, one of the capital's main arteries, Mr. Talib has hung a black-and-white billboard showing a young Mr. Schwarzenegger in a formidable bicep-flexing pose.
"The first inspiration I had for bodybuilding was Arnold," Mr. Talib, a squat man built like a bulldozer, said in his back-room office as metal weights clanked outside. "Now I aspire to improve the sport in Iraq."
Mr. Talib is in regular e-mail contact with Governor Schwarzenegger's office in Sacramento, apprising officials there of the state of bodybuilding in Iraq. The Iraqi Olympic Committee recently appointed him as an adviser. His goal, he said, is to get Iraqi bodybuilders and weight lifters to a level where they can compete in the international arena.
No one keeps statistics on gym rats in Iraq, but anecdotal evidence suggests that more young people are hitting the weights now than at any time since the war began. Gyms are proliferating across Baghdad.
Mr. Talib says Baghdad now has more than 80 gyms, because people here need an outlet for their pent-up frustrations.
One would never mistake Arnold Classic for a Los Angeles health club. The lighting is pallid and fluorescent, the walls decorated with little more than grainy posters of Mr. Schwarzenegger from the 1970's.
Arnold Classic now has about 400 people coming in each month, Mr. Talib said. There are special hours for women. Because the gym is near several foreigners' compounds and hotels, a few of those who work out there are Westerners.
One regular lifter was Nicholas Berg, the American businessman who was kidnapped and beheaded last year by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant. (Mr. Zarqawi also has a penchant for weight lifting)
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
uhhhh, when the slimes learn Zarqawi also has a penchant for weight lifting?
Good news from Iraq, on the lighter side, but it's still good news.
Neat!
Thanks for posting it.
Same thing happened in Afghanistan except on a larger scale. The Taliban had banned weight lifting and bodybuilding (along with many other things).
They were no sooner overthrown that the sportsmen came out of the underground and opened gyms.
People everywhere want to be free. Some will use that freedom to buff up, some to veg out with a stack of books. It's all good.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
Mr. Talib is in regular e-mail contact with Governor Schwarzenegger's office in Sacramento, apprising officials there of the state of bodybuilding in Iraq. The Iraqi Olympic Committee recently appointed him as an adviser. His goal, he said, is to get Iraqi bodybuilders and weight lifters to a level where they can compete in the international arena.
I guess Uday's old method of threatening non achieving athletes with the Iron Madden is no longer needed :)
bump!
How about getting a job or starting a business to release those pent up frustrations?
He is their head spotter.
Wasn't there a WWF wrestler called the Iron Sheik or something like that?
"People trust him to lead the most important state in America".
Thanks for the ping!
Maybe Arnold should make one of those "surprise visits" to Iraq.
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