Arnold Sports Festival Winner: Paolini in a Bikini

March 3, 2013 @ admin → No Comments

Two words of advice for folks who are interested in attending the annual Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus, Ohio, and might be a little claustrophobic: Friday, Sunday. Mainly because Saturday at the event is incredibly fan-filled as well as fun-filled.

Francine Slobodnik (left) and Caryn Paolini show off their Arnold Sports Festival champion jackets with Staci Boyer in the middle.

It’s not quite what former New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra once observed about a restaurant he once frequented: “It’s so crowded nobody goes there anymore.”

Fans flock to the Greater Columbus Convention Center to view a variety of attractions ranging from competitions to celebrities (Arnold Schwazenegger certainly qualifies for starters) and booths featuring a variety of wares. Some of the booths — such as bodybuilding.com, which appears to be the most popular in terms of sheer numbers of people stopping by — give away free items. Which may account in part for the popularity. Some booths feature familiar faces (OK, and bodies) signing autographs for free.

Of course, there are some folks who do charge for an autograph, and that certainly is the individual’s right. And people seem more than happy to plunk down a few dollars for a photo with and/or autograh from a Lou Ferigno of “Incredible Hulk” fame.

One of the wonderful parts of wanderig through a maze (OK, not really a maze; more like aisles and aisles) of booths is seeing familiar folks either at some of the booths or maneuvering through the masses of humanity.

If you’ve been paying even the slighest attention, you should be able to figure out who these people are.

There also is the opportunity to meet people whom you may know merely as Facebook friends. And then there is the random occurrence of meandering (or as close to meandering as there is, given the bounty of bodies) and coming upon a pro football player autographing little, blue plastic footballs. And there was former NFL running back Jamal Lewis, who happened to be wearing his Super Bowl XXXV ring from his rookie season with the Baltimore Ravens.

Your humble reporter would like to be able to contrast the attendance during the day to the attendance at Saturday night’s “Party With the Pros.” Sadly, because of dedication to duty (and what a warped sense of priorities that is), I was not there. And because today’s effort wasn’t finished before the party was, we will have to inquire Sunday from folks who actually might have been there. It’s incentive to return to the convention center for the third day in a row. This time with some elbow room — without elbowing anyone.

For those of you scoring at home (or elsewhere or not scoring at home or elsewhere), Caryn Paolini — who recently has been featured on this site — won the Arnold Sports Festival Bikini Class A (based on height, not cup size for those unfamiliar with how they do these things) title Saturday (March 2). It is the second year in a row that a Team F.A.B. member fom suburban Chicago has been the winner. In 2012, Francine Slobodnik captured the crown (OK, it’s really a trophy but some of us enjoy the alliteration).

It also is the second year in a row that the winner has appeared on “Sports & Torts” with co-hosts David Spada and Elliott Harris on talkzone.com. Coincidence? Judge for yourself.

As fate — or more likely randomness — would have it, I happened upon Francine at the Egg Whites International booth. Moments after chatting with her and moving down the aisle, I happened upon Caryn and Staci Boyer, who co-founded Team F.A.B. with Sandy Wiedmeyer. So the least I could do is conduct a couple of interviews and take some photos. And call it work. More like a calling is how I like to think of it. But for tax purposes, we will call it work.

Just don’t tell the IRS how much fun it can be — even if it does mean missing out on a chance to attend the Arnold after-party.

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On Saturday night in the Bikini International, India Paulino — last year’s runner-up — took the title. The rest of the top six: 2. Nathalia Melo, 3. Nicole Nagrani, 4. Yeshaira Robles, 5. Jessica Paxson, 6. Jaime Baird.

Dexter Jackson took home the highly coveted Pro Bodybuilding title. The rest of he top six: 2. Ben Pakulski, 3. Toney Freeman, 4. Johnnie Jackson, 5. Hidetada Yamagishi, 6. Cedric McMillan.

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