2022 Arnold Sports Festival South America – Does anybody care?
The 2022 Arnold Sports Festival South America is just 10 days away, and the bodybuilding media has not mentioned this event in any of their media.
The Arnold Sports Festival South America is taking place from 22-24 April 2022.
At the time of publishing this article, only three IFBB Pro athletes are mentioned on the official Instagram page of the event.
Before the split between the IFBB and NPC, the Arnold South America was a very popular event, with numerous top bodybuilding stars traveling to Brazil to compete at this once prestigious event.
After the split, the 2018 Arnold Classic South America was sanctioned by the IFBB and the IFBB Elite Pro. This partnership would come to an end, and the NPC and IFBB Pro League would go on to sanction the event from 2019.
At the 2019 event, Juan Diesel was the winner from a line up of only ten bodybuilders.
Due to the pandemic, the 2020 and 2021 Arnold South America events were not organized.
Now we are just 19 days away from the event, and there has been no mention of this event from any of the bodybuilding media, including the media dedicated solely to the NPC and IFBB Pro League.
RX Muscle, Generation Iron, Muscular Development, Strength Addicts, Nick’s Strength & Power and others have failed to mention this event.
With no competitor list published, the bodybuilding media have absolutely nothing to report or discuss.
Either the Arnold South America media team are missing the entire point, or they literally have no athletes signing up.
No promotion from Arnold Sports media
The official social media accounts of the Arnold Sports Festival, have absolutely no indication that this event is going to take place in just over two weeks.
When browsing through the official Arnold Sports Festival website, all the links to the international version of these event have been hidden away.
Just over a year ago, all of the Arnold Classic international events had prominent links on the home page, but fast forward to 2022, all the links are hidden away.
It seems that Arnold Schwarzenegger himself no longer has interest in these events.
There could be a good reason for this. Before the split in 2017, IFBB President Dr. Rafael Santonja, had a major part in the international events. The IFBB used to make sure thousands of amateur athletes would compete at all the international Arnold Sports Festivals, and the IFBB Pro League would just need to take care of the IFBB Pro’s.
The events still had promoters organizing everything, but there was a solid organization taking care of the athletes.
After 2017, this all ended. The Arnold Classic Europe and South Africa remained under the IFBB and IFBB Elite Pro, while the Arnold Classic USA, South America, Australia and UK are sanctioned by the NPC.
As it looks, the Arnold South America will have a very low turn out of pro athletes. The Arnold Australia looks to be gone forever, while the UK version is the strongest of the three.
Regarding the 2022 Arnold Amateur USA, that took place last March. Evolutionofbodybuilding.net have been informed that the number of athletes that registered for the event was very low, compared to previous years.
No interest from Arnold Schwarzenegger
Since the pandemic, Arnold Schwarzenegger has not traveled to any of the international events. The same might happen in 2022, the fans will only see a video message from the legendary bodybuilder.
In fact, in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s latest newsletter, delivered on 9, April, 2022. There was not one mention of the 2022 Arnold South America.
Arnold talked about the 2022 Arnold Sports Festival USA, but he did not mention the contest that is going to happen in just 19 days.
Arnold is not getting any younger and it could be that he just wants to focus on the original event, in the USA.
It was evident that the 2022 Arnold Sports Festival USA had some regular faces missing from the event.
Whoever follows the sport closely, would have noticed that Schwarzenegger put together a new team to run the event.
Allegedly, the Lorimer’s are not involved any longer. Arnold has had a partnership with Jim Lorimer for over 30 years, but just before the pandemic, the relationship was allegedly was severed.
Star bodybuilders not interested
With the majority of pro events taking place in the USA, the top bodybuilders competing withing the NPC and IFBB Pro League, just could not be bothered to travel to these events.
The 2021 Arnold UK was a successful event, but to be honest, many expected a deeper line up in the Men’s Open Bodybuilding division. The American and Canadian athletes did not take the opportunity to request a special invite for this event.
It could also be that a number of athletes refused the invitation to the UK event.
Regarding the Arnold South America, many pro’s are already focusing on the 2022 Indy Pro, taking place on 14 May. It would not be a comfortable situation travel to Brazil just a few weeks before.
If there are Olympia qualifying events close to home, the majority of athletes will refrain from traveling overseas to compete.
Will the Arnold Classic continue to organize international events?
It was evident that in the last couple of years, Arnold Schwarzenegger has revamped the team that takes care of his pride and joy, the Arnold Sports Festival – USA.
In regards to the international versions of the Arnold Sports Festival, with Arnold not being hands on, as in previous years, it seems that he is taking a step back.
Many have speculated if the Arnold Sports Festival will continue to take place overseas.
Evolutionofbodybuilding.net believes that in the next five years, the Arnold Sports Festival will eventually only take place in the USA.
The older Arnold gets, the less he will travel, meaning fans overseas will not have the opportunity to see their hero. Many that go to the Arnold Sports Festival overseas, only go to get a glimpse of Arnold at the expo.
In regards to the athletes, many amateur bodybuilders, compete with the dream of shaking Arnold Schwarzenegger’s hand on stage.
With Arnold distancing himself from these events, the interest for the international Arnold Sports Festival is unfortunately declining.
