1/27/2024 0 Comments Hinsdale zazu![]() After 60 seconds of both pullers vying for an advantageous grip, the ref signals "go" and hands slip apart in a cloud of white hand chalk. She simply chews her Trident gum and stares up at the ceiling. King's superhero biceps are thicker than Dalia's 17-inch upper arms.īut Dalia doesn't yell, flex or offer any of the intimidating bravado displayed by other wrestlers. You are stronger!" yells one of King's teammates. ![]() After isolating herself all afternoon, pacing and warming her muscles in an arm-sock she knitted herself, Dalia steps up to the platform. All 1,200 athletes, support staff and their families are watching. King worked her way up from the bottom bracket after losing to Dalia that morning, and King knows she has to hit her hard out of the gate. Having shelved three opponents in the one-second win category, Dalia must square up against Team Canada's Joyce King, 38, a bodybuilder from New Brunswick. Right-arm competition remains the loudest, largest draw of any tournament, this one reeking of Menthalatum muscle rub and secondhand cigarette smoke wafting in from the lobby. "You can break an arm more easier in soccer, or out on the street," she says. In a sport when breaking bones can be a source of bragging rights, Dalia clasps her hands in thanks that her safety record is spotless. In her career, she's never been injured, nor caused an injury. Basketball and running are also part of the regimen, and Dalia can curl nearly her own weight with each arm. Stretching remains central, and Dalia sharpens her quickness by pulling a bicycle tube hooked to the corner of a table. ![]() Because her job strengthens her hands, she only gears up before tournaments with three-hour training sessions, three to four times a week a month before competing. I just listen to the referee."ĭuring her two years in the States, she's never lost a match. "I love contact sports," Dalia says, even though she never looks at her opponents. They come on their own dime, fueled by passion and dedication to the WAF. Few of the 480 athletes (48 of them women) from 26 countries in the tournament are sponsored. In America, there are more opportunities."Īll this is true, Dalia says, but she isn't in it for the money. "In Lithuania, you don't have enough time to make money to live and be an athlete. "It's a good opportunity to come here and concentrate on your sport," he says. She decided to remain in America, she says, because she "wanted to check my strength against the best in the world." She moved to Chicago for its central location, arm-wrestling clubs and large Lithuanian community.įriend Rimas Prankskus, 31, traveled to Springfield from Chicago with his daughter Milda, 4, to watch Dalia compete Five years earlier, Dalia had begun pulling after seeing a arm-wrestling championship in Sweden.Įver since, the daughter of a college administrator and a retired building manager has carved out a name for herself in the pulling world. The pair met two years ago in a Virginia Beach, Va., pulling tournament. She leans on coach/boyfriend Saulius Rakauskas, 38, for help in fleshing out her emotions. Speaking in broken, but expressive English, Dalia lacks only confidence in her vocabulary.
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