Fred Roy – Athlete
Organized armwrestling began in Saskatchewan in 1979 and Fred Roy was involved. He helped organize Prince Albert’s hosting of the North American Armwrestling Championship, which drew competitors from across the continent. After the overwhelming response to that event, Roy organized the Saskatchewan Armwrestling Association and formed a provincial circuit.
As well, he was involved in the organization of armwrestling at the national level, having served first as a Board Member and then President of the Canadian Armwrestling Association. He also was Vice‑President of the World Armwrestling Federation. In 1990, he was the recipient of the John Miazdyk Memorial Trophy, considered to be the highest honour among armwrestlers in Canada. Roy also officiated in armwrestling where his bilingual abilities came in handy in Quebec and Ontario.
However, it was as a competitor where Roy excelled. Roy consistently won provincial competitions in the middleweight class ‑ in both right and left arms. Nationally, he was named the top male armwrestler in 1983, after having finished second in his class in Sit‑Down Competition and fifth in Stand‑up Competition. In 1984, Roy was fourth in his weight class at the National Sit‑Down Armwrestling Championship. In 1985 Roy earned a spot on the Canadian Armwrestling team at the world championships in Mexico City.
It was at this event where he defeated a heavily favoured British opponent and a Brazilian to become the World Middleweight Armwrestling Champion in both the Right‑Arm and Left‑Arm Categories. Later that year, he won the National Truckers Championship, giving him an opportunity to compete in Las Vegas at a tournament designed to find possible participants in the Sylvester Stallone arm‑wrestling movie Over The Top.
Named the Prince Albert Sportsman of the Year in 1986, Roy continued to show a high level of performance in armwrestling. At the Canadian Championship that year he won the 198‑pound class Right‑Arm Competition and was second in that weight division’s Left‑Arm Category, Roy was again chosen to represent Canada at the World Championship but declined to attend the event in India because of political instability in that nation at the time. Roy did attend the World Championship in England in 1987 and came home with second place silver medals in both the Right‑Arm and Left‑Arm Divisions of his weight class. He won the Silver Medal at the Canadian Championship in Prince Albert in 1988 to again qualify for the National Team at the World Championship in Sweden. Also that year he won a gold medal in the 180‑200 pound class at the prestigious Canadian Iron Man Event at Calgary.
The 1989 World Championship at Athens, Greece was also attended by Roy who was there in an official capacity as the Canadian Armwrestling Association President. He was also an official at the 1990 Championship in Houston where he was also inducted into the World Armwrestling Federation Hall of Fame.
Inducted into the Prince Albert Sports Hall of Fame in 1991.
