170 OhioHealth Medical Team Staff and Volunteers Provide Exceptional Care at the Arnold Sports Classic

The Arnold Sports Festival has been a tradition since 1989. It first began as a bodybuilding competition with Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Worthington Mayor, Jim Lorimer.

“It’s pretty awesome,” said Ben Bring, DO, OhioHealth Dublin Methodist Hospital and family and sports medicine. “It’s really been great to see it grow and evolve over the years.”

This is Dr. Bring’s fourth year as the medical director for the Arnold. He’s been volunteering since 2013.

The four-day event consists of weightlifting, powerlifting, foosball, GTMA (global traditional martial arts), wrestling, bodybuilding, grappling, cheerleading and dance, gymnastics, amateur and pro strongman, strongwoman and more. 

OhioHealth had one hundred and seventy medical team staff and volunteers at the Arnold this year that included athletic trainers, attending physicians, resident physicians, medical students, nurses and amateur HAM (radio) operators.

The HAM (radio operators who volunteered are with a group called Franklin County Amateur Radio Emergency Services and help the team with communication throughout the entire footprint of the convention center and nearby hotel. This team is made up of more than 40 volunteers who gave over 800 hours of service over four days to help the medical team. Some of their roles include being connected with Columbus Division of Fire for hospital transports and assisting our medical team with communications throughout the entire weekend.

“There is limited to no cellular service at this event, so their involvement is invaluable to help make our team successful in caring for 20,000 athletes,” said Dr. Bring.

The medical team is prepared to take care of just about anything.

“Most of our staff is going to be first aid only, so our athletic trainers can help us out with bruises, cuts, scrapes and things like that that might be taped up,” said Dr. Bring. “We have a lot of band aids.” 

The medical team has boxes of other first-aid medical supplies and equipment on standby and are prepared to treat more severe injuries. 

“If we do have a neck injury, we have c-collars on staff with us and if we do need to move a large athlete, we have mega movers with Columbus fire,” said Dr. Bring.

Dr. Bring expressed how important it is to have the medical team staff and volunteers on site to be the eyes and ears alongside other organizations at the Arnold working to keep everyone safe.

“Athlete safety is our number one goal, like I said, we have almost 20 thousand athletes here so I always joke, the blue quarter zips will be out and about so they’re the eyes and ears and we’re here to help in any way we can,” said Dr. Bring.

Each day starts with a team huddle to discuss roles and plans for the day.

“The huddle is great because it creates familiarity, everyone kind of knows who’s who, what roles there are, especially for us for communication is really important,” said Dr. Bring. “Especially for our HAM operators to know if there is an emergency, things we can help with to make sure all those emergencies get communicated through them first and foremost.”

The team also goes over where the medical equipment is and the layout of the floor plan of the entire event. Preparation for the Arnold happens weeks to months before the event begins.

“We had a meeting with all the security people involved here too so Columbus fire, Columbus police, we also work with the bomb squad, JHAD, homeland security, and a lot of different people from the Arnold organization,” said Dr. Bring.

Sean McHenry is an associate manager with OhioHealth and a medical coordinator for the Arnold. This is his fourth year in this role. “My role is mostly to kind of look at the schedule for the Arnold because they have many events in many different places, so assigning our athletic trainers to many of those events and to make sure we have enough adequate coverage for all the events.”

Getting to know the layout of the floor plan includes a tour right after the huddle led by McHenry.

“It’s two-fold because it’s so big and there’s events everywhere, we want our athletic trainers to know exactly where they need to go, when they need to be there, and we also talk about the emergency action plan,” said McHenry. “If something happens at this stage, where are they going, how are they getting ahold of the fire department, so we go through all of those things.”

The emergency plan is already established, but it is updated every year. McHenry also discusses with the team the different types of sports that will be taking places and injuries that are common within each sport.  If a severe injury were to happen and a trip to the hospital is needed, McHenry’s role includes making the connection between Columbus Fire for transport to nearby OhioHealth hospital.

“All the hospitals here nearby, especially with OhioHealth Grant Medical Center, we have a really good relationship there we can get athletes in here to there,” said McHenry. “They’ve already seen the physicians here so we can do quick x-rays there, we did MRIs last year, we have athletes from all around the world so it’s really great to have the whole OhioHealth system helping out and getting it done quickly.”

After the event ends each day, the team holds a debrief before leaving the convention center.

“At the end of the day we do a debrief as well to see what went well, what things we can improve on, and hopefully we can implement those changes for tomorrow if we need to,” said Dr. Bring.

“I just want to say how proud I am of our athletic trainers and the physicians that we work with, HAM and Columbus fire, Columbus police, everything that goes into this to make it great for the athletes and spectators here, we’re just really proud of to be part of it,” said McHenry.

Both feel the Arnold Sports Festival is an event that really has a positive impact on many people not only in the community, but around the world within the sport of bodybuilding, health, wellness, and fitness. 

“Growing up I mean who doesn’t love Arnold Schwarzenegger, as an elder millennial he was such a big part of our lives, my brother and I growing up a lot of the movies he did,” said Dr. Bring.

“He has such a big impact in the community, he started this whole thing, so it’s always exciting to see Arnold,” said McHenry.