Arm Wrestling Champion
Although it may seem to the casual observer that arm wrestling is an individual sport, it actually requires a lot of support behind the scenes if one is to achieve any success in competitions, states Warrant Officer Vincent Squires, the Platoon Warrant at the Winnipeg Transition Centre.
WO Squires won the right hand competition at the 2022 Manitoba Provincial Arm Wrestling Championship in the 220 pound class in May at the CanadInns Polo Park. He has also won the Saskatchewan Arm Wrestling Championships and a recent competition in Sudbury, Ontario.
WO Squires says he likes the camaraderie found in arm wrestling comparing it to the close bonding of athletes found in martial arts clubs and on hockey teams.
“I like the challenge of arm wrestling. It looks like a solo sport, but you can’t progress unless you have great training partners and people coaching and pushing you to do better.”
WO Squires’ interest in arm wrestling was sparked when he participated in and won his first arm wrestling competition in 1999 in his hometown of Thompson, Manitoba, a mining community about 763 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.
The powerfully built young man who stands 5’7” tall and weighs in at a muscular 210 pounds, then went on to compete at the Provincial Arm Wrestling Championships in Brandon, Manitoba, where he won his division.
“Competing caused stress on my elbows,” WO Squires said. “So I stopped and didn’t get back into it until 2014 when I was in Saskatchewan. At that time, another military member came through who was a good arm wrestler. I decided to challenge him and he beat me. He quickly introduced me to the guys in the local area and I started training and competing with them regularly. My training consists of pull ups, as well as other specific exercises and weight training,” said WO Squires, who’s married and has a 12-year-old son.
WO Squires has met a few of the “legends” in arm wrestling, including Devan “No Limits” Larratt, a Canadian professional armwrestler, YouTuber and a former member of the Canadian Armed Forces. “I met Devan and went to one of his practices when he was competing in Ottawa. I was there with the Snow Birds at an Air Show. He’s a great guy, very knowledgeable and very strong. He’s huge.”
Larratt is widely considered to be one of the best arm wrestlers of all time and is currently the #1 ranked arm-wrestler in North America. Larratt has one of the sports highest table IQ’s, and can execute any move whether it be a hook, toproll, press, king’s move, or any variation thereof.