Arnold Sports Festival co-founder Jim Lorimer dies

Jim Lorimer, the colorful co-founder of the Arnold Classic, who also served as a national track coach, a mayor, a corporate executive and an FBI agent, died Thursday at age 96.

"I am devastated that I won’t sit with him again and hear his wisdom, or critique bodybuilders together, or just laugh and laugh," said longtime friend and partner Arnold Schwarzenegger in an Instagram post. "Jim lives on in every member of his family, and he lives on in me. He’s one reason I would never call myself self-made."

More:Why a sports festival named after Arnold Schwarzenegger is held in Columbus every year

Born Oct. 7, 1926, in Bristol, Penn., Lorimer lived an eventful and active life until nearly the end. After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Lorimer graduated from Ursinus College before receiving a law degree from Penn State University and embarking on a career as a special agent with the FBI.

Jim Lorimer was a lifelong sports fan and champion for women’s and girls’ sports

In the mid 1950s, after several years in the FBI, Lorimer moved to Worthington after taking a job with Nationwide insurance company, where he later became vice president of government relations. In 1959, Lorimer, a lifelong sports fan, traveled to Philadelphia to watch an international gymnastics competition, where the Soviet Union women beat the U.S. women's team.

More: A family tribute to Jim Lorimer

Lorimer left the event convinced the U.S. women lacked only training to compete against the best in the world.

“I said, ‘I could find a girl right here in Worthington and show her immediately how to jump higher than that girl on the U.S. team,’” Lorimer recalled in a 2020 interview.

Fueled by that passion, Lorimer founded the Ohio Track Club Girls Team. The success of the team, which won national championships, earned Lorimer a role as secretary and chairman of the U.S. Olympic Committee for Women’s Track & Field. He managed the U.S. Team in several international competitions.

“He had a real vision for women’s and girls’ sports,” said Linda Logan, the CEO and president of the Greater Columbus Sports Commission. “He gave women and girls in Ohio the opportunity to compete at an international level. Generations of female athletes can thank him for that.”

His growing involvement in sports led Lorimer to chair the World Weightlifting Championship in Columbus in 1967, followed by promoting Mr. World and Mr. Olympia body-building contest in the city.

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jim Lorimer began lifelong partnership in 1970

At the 1970 event, he invited the young Austrian bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger to Columbus, igniting a lifelong partnership that resulted in the two founding the Arnold Classic — which became the Arnold Sports Festival — in 1989.

"When I met him 52 years ago at the Mr. World bodybuilding championship he organized so fantastically in Columbus, Ohio, I immediately knew Jim would be a big part of my life," Schwarzenegger wrote. "I told him when I retired from competing, we would be partners and promote bodybuilding together. And starting in 1976, we did just that with a handshake agreement for more than 50 years, expanding from a small bodybuilding show to a sports festival with 200,000 visitors and more athletes than the Olympics."

From its simple founding as a body-building contest, the event grew into the biggest weekend event in Columbus, and one that has been duplicated on five continents.

“Jim put Columbus on the map when it came to bodybuilding and other sports-related competitions," said Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther. "But he did much more for the city, especially our young people.”

Those who worked with Lorimer attribute his success to his nonstop passion and his ability to work across the board. He liked to tell those working with him, "Let's always do better than our previous best," a credo he did his best to live up to.

"Jim was a phenomenal person," said Brian Ross, CEO and president of Experience Columbus. "He was very humble but he was also very thoughtful in how he kept the community in front of mind and aligned as he built the juggernaut we know as The Arnold. He grew a very elite bodybuilding competition at Veterans Memorial to a more than $50-million event."

The event became crucial to expanding the convention and event business in Columbus, and in attracting other sports events to the city.

"The Arnold Sports Classic had a major impact on the expansion of the Greater Columbus Convention Center, and building the first Hilton hotel, and now expanding the Hilton into the 1,000-room hotel we have now," Ross said.

Despite the growth of "The Arnold," Lorimer found time to remain active elsewhere, notably in his community of Worthington. Lorimer was appointed in 1967 as Worthington's mayor, a position he held for 14 years. He also was elected to Worthington City Council in the 1980s and served as vice mayor of Worthington for several decades before retiring in 2019.

A lifelong fitness buff, Lorimer worked out regularly in his Worthington basement gym, and liked to entertain people by walking on his hands. He was also an avid Shakespeare fan and frequently attended the Stratford Festival in Ontario.

"That was another facet to what was really a renaissance man. There's just so many layers to him," Logan said. "He was a genuine person, the same person in the board room or in the leadership roles that he was in private with everyday citizens. I feel very blessed to know him."

Lorimer was preceded in death last year by Jean Lorimer, his wife of more than 50 years. He is survived by the couple's three children, Kathy Jane Nagle (Paul), James Jeffrey Lorimer (Jeanne) and Robert Craig Lorimer (Tammy), six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Services are pending at Schoedinger Worthington funeral chapel and at Worthington United Methodist Church.

jweiker@dispatch.com

@JimWeiker

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Jim Lorimer, Arnold Classic co-founder, FBI agent, WWII vet, dies