First steps

I promised long ago that we'd put together a series on the history of armwrestling in Slovakia. I admit that taking on this topic is both a challenge and a commitment. Over the 28 years that organised armwrestling has existed in Slovakia, a huge number of athletes, referees and officials have come and gone. Every one of them deserves thanks — without them, armwrestling would still be just a „pub" sport.

First steps — 1992

When the first official armwrestling tournament was hastily put together in 1992, nobody suspected it would be the start of a successful journey for this new sport. How did it all come about? Quite a number of coincidences played their part. But coincidences only bring the desired effect to those with a clear purpose…

At this moment I learned that my father, the founder of organised armwrestling in Slovakia, had died. I was sitting here surrounded by his photos and newspaper clippings, and suddenly the whole mosaic fell apart. Everything is different now. This writing will be different too — and I think more honest. So…

But coincidences only reward the determined. After the revolution, in the early 90s, it was a turbulent time. Everything was changing fast. In exactly this period Milan Čapla had to end his career at the Slovak Academy of Sciences. Thanks to his brother (Michal Čapla) he had „caught" sport and met people from that world, and was there when the Christian Sports Union was being founded. He swapped the work of a researcher for sports administration. Alongside the Union he helped his brother with powerlifting, but it still wasn't enough. He wanted to achieve something exceptional — something that would forever be his own work. And that's when those coincidences came into play.

In 1992 a letter arrived at the wrestling federation from WAF, with information about a sport called armwrestling, about the existence of a world federation (WAF), and that in Slovakia they had no record of any organisation covering this sport. The letter was passed from hand to hand like a hot potato, until it reached Milan Čapla. He grabbed it. At last he had the chance to create something, to build something from scratch. A second coincidence helped. Two Georgians were in Slovakia at the time — Irena Chikvilidze and Alex Mujishvili. Alex was a Georgian national armwrestler. They were here as tourists, but they were also looking for someone who would take up this sport in our country. By recommendation they reached Michal Čapla, who of course told his brother. One word led to another and, so it wouldn't just be talk, they hurriedly organised the first armwrestling competition in Slovakia. December 1992, Liptovské Sliače — 12 brave men sat down at the competition table. Since both brothers were active in strength sports (Michal was president of the Slovak Bodybuilding Association), it was natural that the promising powerlifter Ján Germánus also took a seat — and won the competition.

First competition, first experience, first table. The Georgians helped us enormously. They gave us the world federation's rules, showed us how to train, taught us how to referee. The first steps had been taken.

That alone, of course, wasn't enough. The sport had to be made official and given a governing body. One option was the Christian Sports Union. But that wasn't the road Milan Čapla wanted to take. He wanted a new organisation with its own legal identity. The reason was simple — to give the new sport a new look, a new name, a new home. All that was left was to come up with a name. Almost the whole world used the name „armwrestling". But Milan wanted to be unique here too. „Arm wrestling" — wrestling with the arm, the shoulder — didn't feel quite right. And above all it wasn't Slovak. He didn't want only an English term to be used here. So he came up with „pretláčanie rukou" (literally „pushing with the hand"). After all, in Slovak we „push against each other". And so it was. Slovenská asociácia pretláčania rukou (SAPR — the Slovak Armwrestling Association) was born.

It was founded by Milan Čapla, Michal Čapla, Marian Čapla, Ján Ďalák, Marek Krajči, Milan Kušnier, Tibor Kvačkaj and Ľudovít Major — all people who knew each other from powerlifting or bodybuilding (Michal Čapla being a Czechoslovak national bodybuilder).

At SAPR's founding conference, Milan Čapla was elected president and Marian Čapla general secretary.

It all „brewed" in the offices of the Christian Sports Union on Špitálska Street in Bratislava. The provisional executive committee was in office for one year.

After the founding conference, work had to begin — building the membership base, organising tournaments. Work piled up, experience was scarce. Enthusiasm and the desire to create something worked wonders.

We organised the first competition at the Bratislava Sport Hall already on 6 February 1993 — and with international participation right from the start.

But more about that in the next part…