FILE: Riverton High School is pictured on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2020.
SALT LAKE CITY — She is a teacher who calls Utah home, but she has a side gig as a world champion arm wrestler.
Sarah Lafond is a special education and math teacher at Mountain Ridge High School in Herriman. She recently returned from London where she won the Women’s World Arm Wrestling Championship in her weight class for both arms.
Utah math teacher blazing trail as world arm wrestling champion
She joins Debbie Dujanovic and KSL at Night co-host Derek Brown.
“So tell us a little bit about that. What does that look like or how you got into it?” Derek asked.
“Okay, so arm wrestling — most people are fairly familiar with, but when it’s competitive, there’s a specific table with certain dimensions. You have to have your elbow within the parameters of a pad [and the] other hand has to be on a peg at all times, and you’re just trying to pin your opponent,” Lafond said.
“Did you like do this just informally at a like a party and people went, ‘Hey, you are really good at this. You ought to do this professionally'” Derek asked.
“So I’ve lifted a long time. And I just wanted a competitive outlet. I just started Googling and found a local arm-wrestling team and decided to give it a shot,” Lafond said.
She added she is a world champion in her weight class for both arms, but is only wrestling with her right arm because she injured her left.
“Do you travel all over the world for this, Sarah?” Debbie asked.
“The world’s [championship] was in Dieppe, France, in September. So that’s where I went back then. I mostly stay in the States, though. So yeah, I have one in Wyoming in July,” Lafond said.
“What do the students in your special ed class think of your side hustle?” Debbie asked.
“They love it. It keeps them in check and scares them a little bit, I think,” she said.
“Do they try to challenge you?” Debbie asked.
“I have students ask. I do not arm wrestle students,” she said.
Dave & Dujanovic can be heard on weekdays from 9 a.m. to noon. on KSL NewsRadio. Users can find the show on the KSL NewsRadio website and app, as well as Apple Podcasts and Google Play.