Will Sarty Wins Both Arm-Wrestling World Titles, Canada's First Open-Age Gold Since 2007

Canadian vegan Will Sarty is a double world arm-wrestling champion. Competing in the 57 kg class at the World Arm Wrestling Championships in Orlando, Florida, Sarty went unbeaten through the left-arm competition, then came back the next day and won the right-arm title too, Great Vegan Athletes reports.

There were eight arm-wrestlers in his class on each day, and Sarty won every one of his matches. Fatigue never caught up with him. His two golds are Canada's first in the open age category since 2007.

It's quite a comeback. Sarty, a Royal Canadian Navy officer, retired in 2016 after a painful injury, and these championships mark his return to the table after five years away. It was his fifth time representing Team Canada and his first gold, the Navy newspaper Trident reports. He told Great Vegan Athletes what the moment meant:

I cried when team Canada starting singing when I was getting presented my medal on the podium. It has been a long 20 years to get here.

Sarty went vegan after that retirement, so this is his first world championships on a plant-based diet. He cut down to make his preferred 57 kg category and still came away undefeated on both arms. Arm-wrestling is all about grip, tendon and raw pulling strength, the kind of strength people still assume has to come from meat. Two world titles in two days say otherwise.

Strength athletes keep proving the point. Kim Best carried a 350 kg yoke, the heaviest ever by a woman, Hulda Waage set a 550 kg Icelandic powerlifting total record, and research has shown plant protein is just as good for building muscle as the animal kind.

No meat, no problem.