COLUMBUS — The Arnold Sports Festival is returning to Columbus this weekend.
The return of one of the country’s biggest sporting festivals comes two years after the festival became one of the first economic victims of the coronavirus pandemic.
It begins Thursday and continues through Sunday at the Greater Columbus Convention Center downtown though a city-wide mask mandate will still apply.
The annual festival draws tens of thousands of participants and spectators to Columbus each year and pumps more than $50 million into the cash registers of local retailers, hotels and restaurants.
Along with traditional competitions like bodybuilding and powerlifting, the event founded by Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1989 also includes foosball contests, slap-fighting and pickleball.
The 2022 Arnold Expo will feature more than 1,000 booths of the latest in sports equipment, apparel and nutrition.
Officials limited spectators to parents and guardians of minors two years ago and the festival was canceled last year.