Surprisely: Jodi larratt is back fro………..view More
Devon Larratt did not immediately support his wife, Jodi, when she showed interest in competitive arm wrestling in 2012. “I thought, Are you f—— crazy?” Larratt says. Now 40 and a recruiter for the Canadian Special Forces, he knew the sport’s bare-knuckle scene as well as anyone.His first opponent had been his grandmother, a farmworker who claimed to be “the best arm-wrestling woman in Alberta.” From there, he progressed to competing on the oil fields of western Canada and in the Special Forces. By 2008 the 6’5″ 225-pounder was the right-armed super heavyweight world champion. In ’12 he won with his left. He earned about $75,000 in tournament prizes last year and gives seminars for $1,000 a day, but he knows well the wages his pursuit extracts. The rare combat sport that can boast zero concussions, arm wrestling still inflicts “a ridiculous amount of pain,” says Larratt. He has seen a biceps tear and a humerus break (there is nothing funny about it), and he himself has had elbow surgery. After 20 years in the game, Larratt describes the aftermath of a weekend tournamentBut no matter what Larratt said four years ago, Jodi was undeterred, and soon after they started training, she was hooked. “What I love about arm wrestling is, from a woman’s perspective, it gives us this opportunity to step outside the box of what’s societally expected for a female,” she says. “You can tap into some serious primal aggression at the arm-wrestling table, and it’s O.K.”
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