Dione Wessels

Strength Diva Dione Wessels Brings Amateur Strongman to the 2010 Arnold Sports Festival

Dione Wessels has always modeled a unique perseverance when it came to her desire to participate in sports. As a youngster growing up in Lithia Springs, Georgia, Wessels was a tomboy with a passion for competition. She excelled at athletics throughout elementary and high school and was identified as a top flight track & field competitor by her junior year. Wessels’s did so well at sports she elected to try her hand out during try outs for the Lithia High School Football team. The coach quickly instructed the players to “hit her just like she was a boy.” They did and a humbled Wessels’s returned with a renewed vigor to her track & field training.

Inspired by her performance on the football field, Wessels’s went on to earn a college scholarship in track & field to Georgia University in Athens, Georgia. Later she forged an enduring bond with her two true passions – her husband and fellow educator Willie and the sport of weightlifting. Wessels performed so tirelessly in the gym that in time she became the strength coach for Rockwood’s School District’s Track & Field team and the wrestling team.

Wessels’s love of all things strength led to her involvement with the sport of strongman while she pursued her Master’s Degree in Adolescent Counseling. As she worked as an educator and counselor she pursued her own strength training and ultimately decided upon the role as leader of the American Strongman Corporation. Early in 2002, Bill Holland, founder of North American Strongman, handed the leadership reins to Dione and Wille Wessels. The Wessels’s have followed in Holland’s footsteps creating the greatest organization in support the fastest growing amateur sport in the world….strongman.

Dione Wessels credits her parents as the true inspiration behind her own success as an athlete and a promoter. “Although my five sisters were extremely feminine and not interested in sports, my parents encouraged me to give my best and never be afraid to try anything. The feeling “that anything is possible” was instilled in me at a young age and I never feared failure. As a consequence of this attitude, a lifelong dream will be realized with the presentation of the inaugural Arnold Amateur Strongman March 5 & March 7, 2010 in Columbus, Ohio.”

Wessels added, “It will be a great honor to present a new competitive opportunity for international athletes before the 170,000 person crowd of dedicated sport and fitness fans at the 2010 Arnold Sports Festival.”

Tickets for the 2010 Arnold Sports Festival go on sale Monday, June 22, 2009 at Arnoldsportsfestival.com and ticketmaster.com/arnold. A daily $10 Arnold Fitness EXPO ticket will be required to view the 2010 Arnold Amateur Strongman events inside the Greater Columbus Convention Center.

Interested competitors will find Dione Wessels at North American Strongman, Inc, nastrongmaninc.com