OpenArmwrestling unveils data-backed rankings for arm wrestling
OpenArmwrestling’s archive now spans 43,177 athletes and 209,181 results, turning arm wrestling into a searchable ratings sport. Right and left hands, plus men and women, are ranked separately.
OpenArmwrestling now tracks 43,177 athletes, 1,864 competitions and 209,181 results, giving arm wrestling a source-backed archive large enough to challenge reputation-based pecking orders. Every athlete starts at 1500 in a Glicko-2 system, so a win over a stronger opponent moves the sport’s conversation more than a busy schedule ever could.
That matters because the site does not flatten the sport into one list. Right hand and left hand are ranked separately, men and women are ranked separately, and users can filter by weight class, age group, federation, country and year. In a sport where one puller can dominate on one side of the table and be merely solid on the other, those splits turn rankings into a matchup tool instead of a simple leaderboard.
The federation layer gives the system even more weight. OpenArmwrestling has separate views for organizations such as the World Armwrestling Federation and for archive bodies like the Professional Armwrestling League, which lets comparisons stay inside a ruleset rather than mixing eras and standards. That is a useful correction in a sport that has spent decades scattered across local events, pro circuits and international championship brackets.
The timing also fits the sport’s history. The World Armwrestling Federation was established in 1977, now has members from 82 countries and says its official senior program includes 36 events. The first WAF World Championship was held in Wetaskiwin, Alberta, Canada, in 1979, and medals are still awarded separately for right and left hands in each weight class and age group. WAF’s rules documents show repeated revisions from 1994 through at least December 2022, a paper trail that helps explain why a standardized ratings model is finally practical.
OpenArmwrestling’s own records page makes the case for the database even more directly: because arm wrestling has no measured performance mark like a lifted weight or a timed run, championship titles function as the sport’s record system. The site tracks the most-decorated athletes in each division, giving names such as Assen Hadjitodorov, John Miazdzyk and Robert O’Leary a place in a statistical history that used to live mostly in memory, brackets and old result sheets.
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