Matthias Schlitte

Matthias Schlitte

Hello, my name is Matthias Schlitte and I am a dedicated professional armwrestler. On April 2nd, 1987, I was born in Haldensleben, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. In 1990 my family and I moved to the small nearby village Bebertal, where I live until today.

The Beginning

In 2004, a little bar in Haldensleben was looking for the strongest armwrestler in the region – my first tournament and the beginning of my career. Without any knowledge or practise I competed in the amateur-class up to 90kg – being only 16 years old with a weight of 65kg. At first, older and more experienced fighters smiled at me for being so light-weighted, but after winning the contest the opinions changed immediately.

The first title

Through my victory in the contest I gained the interest of Bill Frank, Vice-World-Champion and assistant coach from the VfL Wolfsburg.
He invited me to come to a training session which I gladly accepted – and soon I found myself to be a member of the VfL Wolfsburg, being trained by national-coach Olaf Köppen and Vice-World-Champion and multiple awarded German Champion Dirk Schenker.

In April 2004 I competed at my first professional tournament – the 17. German Championships in Hanau, Hessen. I was able to win the youth-class up to 70kg without a defeat and so was awarded my first German Champion title and the chance to fight for the national team of Germany.

In summer of the same year I participated at the European Championships in Gnydia, Poland, and was proud to reach the 6th place in my first tournament as a member of the national team. Furthermore I reached place 5 in the highly competitive internationl “Over the top”-tournament in Wolfsburg in the Senior class. In 2004 I was also able to win two more newcomer-tournaments in Edemissen and Müden.

The first year in the Senior-Class

Matthias Schlitte vs. Udo Weiss

In 2005 I celebrated my 18th Birthday and therefore was eligible to fight in the Senior-Classes. At the German Championshops in Starnberg I only had to admit defeat to the former Vice-World-Champion Udo Weiß from Frankfurt/Oder, Germany. Because of my achievements in armwrestling so far, I became of interest for the media. So in Summer of 2005 I became a one-day co-host together with “Radio SAW”-moderator Volker Haidt at the morning-show “Muckefuck”. This was a great opportunity for me to present my career and my sport to many interested people all over the country.
In September of 2005 I again participated at the “Over the top”-tournament in Wolfsburg and reached the final round where I finally became 4th.

European- and World-Championships

In the year 2006 my focus was on the school – for I was to get my Abitur (diploma that enables me to attend a university) at the “Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Gymnasium” in Haldensleben in February. After that I found some more time for my sport. Unfortunately, I was only able to reach the 4th place at the German Championships in Melle, Germany. After that I intensively practised together with Dirk Schenker to prepare for the European Championships in Budapest, Hungary. There I even managed to qualify for the quarter-finals in the class up to 70kg. Most of all I gained a lot of experience. Then in September I celebrated my first international tournament title – I won the “Over The Top”-tournament and became the youngest fighter ever to win that competition.
Then in October I started my Bachelor-degree study of social sciences at the Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg. Together with the radio SAW I took part in an event for UNICEF in the Florapark (a big Mall in my area), it was a kind of amateur-trainingscamp before the Worlds. We collected more than 600 € for this organisation (pictures in the “Media”-section). At the end of that year I competed in my first World Championships, but unfortunately wasn’t able to win a fight. But besides that I experienced the biggest Armwrestling event of all times at the Trafford-Center in Manchester, UK – with over 1000 athletes from over 40 different countries.

The victory against an old friend

Matthias Schlitte im Wettkampf

I managed to get back on the podium at the German Championships 2007, where I, again, was defeated by Udo Weiß and therefore won bronze. In July I started at the Grand Prix in Rocheford, Belgium, where I finished 3rd against a hard competiton. In the “Mirror Room” in Wolfsburg I then once again had to face my old rival Udo Weiss in the final round. I already lost against him once so now I had to beat him twice in order to win the fight. At the first fight I had a quick start and was able to push him down quickly, accompanied by the cheers of the fans. I was very happy but then had to admit defeat in the second fight – and therefore got Silver at the “Over the Top 2007″. At the international “Arm-Blast” tournament I unfortunately had to quit because of an injury I got in the final fight against Stefan Hüppin – Second place.

Focusing on the German Championships and National League

Matthias Schlitte beim Iron Curtain in Großbritannien

In 2008 I already started my special training for the German Championshops in January, so on April 5th it was time to fight. In Hanau, where I already became Junior-German-Champion, I could celebrate my first German Championship Title in the Senior-class. In the final fight of the class up to 70kg I defeated Dimitar Yankov from Munich.
Besides that it was the first year of the fleshly founded Armwrestling National League. Competing for the “Team North”, I got 4 points against Udo Weiß and Georg Kölle from “Team East” on the first day. On the re-match two weeks later I again got the maximum points of 4 against Weiß and Kölle. Together with my team mate Hartmut Jentsch I traveled to the European Championshops to Sarpsbourg, Norway, in June, where I finished on a 12. place. In July I started again at the big Grand Prix de Rochefort in Belgium, where I fought straight to the finals without a defeat and there beat the french master Josef Lovei.

Through this win I was invited to compete in a supermatch against Ali Khan (Pakistan) in the english city Liverpool. Unfortunately I only won 1 of 6 fights against him because of a “tenosynovitis”, which I suffered from at that time. The whole fight was recorded by the european sport channel “Eurosport”. Because of this injury I was forced to take a longer break from training, but had my comeback in December, the last tournament-day of the national armwrestling league, where I again scored 4 points without a single defeat and won the first title with my team.

In the menu you can find a whole list of my achievements in armwrestling under the link “Career” The link “Media” will offer you many photos, videos and newspaper articles about my fights. Furthermore you can find some interesting facts about my sport under the link “Armwrestling”.