Responding to athlete inquiries about the status of the strongman event being held as part of the Arnold Classic, IFSA founder Douglas Edmunds, Ph.D. issued a statement today.

"IFSA sanctioned the event out of our deep respect for David Webster and his involvement in the sport," Edmunds told IronMind, noting that IFSA would be evaluating the competition to determine future IFSA participation, and saying that IFSA is always eager to support efforts to establish "new frontiers in the sport."

Marking the recent progress in US strongman competitions, IFSA-USA, led by Jim Davis, just held the first of the four qualifying events for the US Championships later this year, which will determine which Americans go on to compete in the 2002 World's Strongest Man contest.