Phil Arnold was just looking for something to keep himself occupied in retirement. Who could have guessed that in less than a year it would result in Arnold being able to call himself a world champion?
The Edmonds resident and former attorney proved that one’s retirement hobby need not be just about passing the time, as he turned his delve into Olympic weightlifting into a gold medal at the 2022 IWF World Masters Championships in December.
“It’s amazing, just amazing,” said Arnold, who still laughs at the thought that he’s a world champion. “I never thought that would happen. I just didn’t want to embarrass myself.”
Not only is Arnold not embarrassing himself, he’s showing that age is no barrier to staying in shape or competing at an international level.
Arnold, 74, spent 44 years as a personal injury attorney before retiring last February. Arnold’s job consisted of long hours and lots of work, so when he retired there was a large void to fill.
“When I retired, what was I going to do?” Arnold asked himself. “I could smoke cigars and walk the dog — which I’m good at. But I had more time than that.”
Arnold has always been an athlete, and he’s always lifted weights in some capacity — he has some dumbbells and a bench-press station in a corner of his home. But he’d never done any Olympic weightlifting, which consists of two techniques: the snatch and the clean and jerk. Not until he hooked up with Chris Douglas in 2017.
Douglas is the owner of Paramount Strength & Conditioning in Mountlake Terrace, a location that’s becoming a hub for masters weightlifting. It was in 2017 that Arnold found Douglas and began working out with him.
“My conditioning coach moved to California and I needed to find a new coach,” Arnold explained. “I did some research and (Douglas) came up frequently, particularly in crossfit and weightlifting. And it was so close, it was just fortuitous that it was so convenient.”
At first Douglas was just doing one training session a week with Douglas, and it didn’t consist of Olympic weightlifting. But Douglas started incorporating the snatch, and Arnold took to it.
“In weightlifting, when you have your form right the weight just flies, and it’s an awesome feeling when that happens,” Arnold said.
“(Arnold’s strength) is just his determination,” Douglas said. “Just his determination to get it down. Initially he started really slow, but over the course of years he slowly began to understand better and really drive for good technique. Technique is important for this sport, it’s not like power lifting, which is just a matter of getting stronger. Olympic weightlifting comes down to the small details, you don’t just muscle the bar up. Most people his age don’t have good technique, they just muscle the weight up. My philosophy is that technique comes first, and he’s taken that on and it’s led to his technique getting better.”
Then in 2019 Douglas convinced Arnold to enter some local tournaments — and subsequently began a crash course in teaching Arnold the clean and jerk. Arnold experienced some successes, but he remained casual about the sport, continuing to train just once a week with Douglas primarily for the purpose of staying in shape.
However, that changed upon retirement. First, Arnold had more time to devote to the sport. Second, the World Masters Championships just happened to be in the U.S. for the first time, taking place Dec. 1-10 in Orlando, Florida. Douglas was putting together a group from Paramount to enter, and he asked Arnold to be a part of it.
“My coach talked me into it,” Arnold said. “He’s very persuasive.”
“He had just retired and I convinced him to do an extra session of just mobility, doing stretching and range of motion,” Douglas said. “We did that for a few weeks and he decided he wanted to keep that going. Then about six weeks before worlds he decided to skip mobility, he felt he knew enough to do that on his own, so he had two sessions a week with me.”
What did Arnold’s family think about his ramping up the weightlifting at his age?
“I’m amazed, but I’m not amazed,” said his wife, Lucy Richard, who’s fully backed Arnold’s journey. “When he does something he really does it, he works very hard at it. And it also feeds into the competitive streak that he has.”
Despite all the preparations, Arnold went into worlds with no expectations.
“I thought it would be a struggle to get on the podium,” Arnold said. “There were some Polish lifters who were lifting tremendous amounts of weight that seemed incongruous to their age. But they didn’t show up.”
Competing in the men’s age 70-74 89-kilogram division, Arnold snatched 51 kilograms and clean and jerked 71 kilograms. His overall total of 122 kilograms bested Jed Harris of the U.S. by five kilos for the gold.
“It was awesome,” Douglas said. “We had put in a lot more work than we had previously for meets, and it was awesome to see him put in the work and really commit to doing this. It was awesome to see at his age that he was actually getting stronger and improving, both with his flexibility and his technique. To this day he’s looking the best he’s ever looked technically with his lifts.”
And Arnold doesn’t plan on slowing down, despite dealing with arthritis in his hands that makes it challenging to grip the bar. He’s now moved into the 75-79 age category, meaning he has some new competition. Next up is the 2023 National Masters Championships on March 15-19 in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.
“I enjoy it, it’s my hobby,” Arnold said. “I’m going to do it as long as I can physically. I have the greatest coach to keep me progressing, so I’m looking forward to the next competition.”
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