Kauai arm wrestlers win 11 medals at Maui tournament
Kauai Elite Arm Wrestling brought home 11 medals from Maui, with four island athletes entering multiple weight classes and turning a niche sport into a medal haul.
Kauai Elite Arm Wrestling left Wailea with 11 medals, a haul built by four athletes who kept entering multiple weight classes and gave the island a rare kind of bragging right. Danny Dowler, Cy Nahele Rapozo, Kaeo Palama-Souza and Ethan Ramos all helped the Kauai squad pile up top-three finishes at the first annual Maui Armwrestling Tournament at Mulligans on the Blue.
The result matters because arm wrestling is not a one-and-done exhibition sport. It rewards technique, table feel and the ability to repeat under pressure, which is exactly what Kauai’s competitors showed by stepping into more than one bracket against mainland and neighbor-island opponents. For a small island county, that kind of depth is what turns a weekend trip into a statement.
Dowler’s role in the group also points to how far the local scene has come. He defended his 2025 championship at the 2026 IFA U.S. National Armwrestling Championship in Dayton, Ohio, where weigh-ins and registration ran April 24 and 25 and competition was held April 25-26 at Hollywood Casino Dayton and Hollywood Dayton Raceway. One event listing said athletes who qualify there can go on to Team USA for an IFA World Armwrestling Championship, a pathway that gives Kauai’s medalists something bigger than a trophy to chase.
The Maui tournament, held March 14, was designed to connect competitors, spectators and Hawaii’s arm-wrestling community, and the Kauai showing fit neatly into that growing network. Dowler, Palama-Souza and Ramos were also listed on the Hawaii arm-wrestling team roster at the Hi Fit Expo competition scheduled for June 29, 2025 at Neal S. Blaisdell Exhibition Hall in Honolulu, alongside Chris Baumgarter, Elijah Villa, Dustin Rivera, Alex “Sir Noodle Arm,” Ueili Taufatofua, Istvan Fordor and Nakoa Hoapili.
That broader statewide presence helps explain why the Kauai result resonates beyond one medal count. Armfighter.com lists official U.S. rankings updated May 1, 2026, and its event calendar includes Hawaii competitions, underscoring that this is an organized circuit with regular travel, rankings and repeat matchups. For Kauai athletes, that means there is a real ladder to climb, not just an occasional side event.
Anyone interested in competing can contact Dowler directly. For Kauai, the 11-medal finish shows how a small, highly specialized sports community can build a competitive niche that holds its own against larger islands and keeps producing names that travel well beyond home waters.
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