North Dakota State Fair adds open-class arm wrestling championship

The North Dakota State Fair is putting arm wrestling on its summer contest stage with an open-class championship that folds men’s and women’s pullers into left- and right-arm brackets at the SRT Park Festival Tent. The event is set for Saturday, July 25, 2026, with onsite registration and weigh-in at 10:30 a.m. and the first bout around 1 p.m.

Open class is the point here: this is not a closed invitation-only showcase, but an adult competition for anyone 18 and older who can make the classes, sign the waiver onsite and pay the fee. The fair lists men’s divisions at 0-176 pounds, 177-198 pounds, 199-221 pounds and 222 pounds and up, with women’s divisions at 0-154 pounds and 155 pounds and up. Entry is $30 per arm, so a puller entering both sides pays $60. The field is capped at 80 total entries, and the first 50 entrants will get a commemorative T-shirt.

The fair is also placing the championship inside its 2026 America 250 adult contest lineup, alongside events such as the Pie Eating Contest, Hot Dog Eating Contest, Best Legs on the Fairgrounds and a Mullet Contest. That matters because arm wrestling is not being treated as a novelty break between funnel cakes and concert sets. It is being slotted into the same organized contest structure that gives fairgoers a real lane to compete, whether they come from a gym, a strongman background or a backyard table.

North Dakota has been doing this longer than the fair calendar suggests. Prairie Public says the state held its first wrist wrestling championship in Minot in 1976, and the State Fair event became a summer fixture. By 2019, 60 people were pulling at the fair tournament, which had grown into a double-elimination format with awards in each class.

The wider regional scene is still producing fields big enough to matter. In 2024, the Stage Stop tournament in Mandan drew about 45 entries across 10 classes and paid $400 for first place, $190 for second and $50 for third in each class. Clifton Erickson, who organized that event, has pushed to grow women’s and youth participation, and the fair’s mixed-division format gives that push a clearer on-ramp. For North Dakota arm wrestling, the State Fair bracket is built to catch first-timers now and feed the next wave into the state circuit later.