Jake Ward

Jake Ward’s story begins in a video store in 1990. As a kid, he stumbled across Over the Top, the Sylvester Stallone armwrestling film, and loved it. He’s not entirely sure why it resonated with him. Maybe it was the competitiveness. Maybe it was two people locked in with nowhere to hide. Or maybe it was that it felt different to the other sports he was playing.

Growing up, Jake played basketball and football and kept playing into adulthood. He loved competing, but by 2019 his body was starting to push back. Injuries piled up, football wound down, and he felt ready for something different. Not bigger, just new.

Armwrestling resurfaced in the most Jake way possible. At 2am, on an active night shift as a disability support worker, he randomly Googled whether there was a tournament happening in Victoria. There was one starting at midday in Dingley, less than 10 hours later. He messaged his brother and they entered on the spot. No prep, no plan, pure spontaneity.

They got smashed. But what stuck wasn’t the losses - it was the people. The community was tight, welcoming and passionate. There was only one club in Victoria at the time, so Jake started training properly. Later that year he competed at nationals and began documenting the journey on YouTube.

The early videos were, in his words, boring. Then lockdown hit and his brother suggested he commentate armwrestling as no one was doing that so Jake relaunched the channel with a completely different energy. He wasn’t trying to sound polished; he leaned into being himself, “a larrikin”, filling the natural pauses of the sport with context, humour and edge.

It took off. During lockdown, he interviewed elite pullers from around the world from his kitchen and garage, building relationships one conversation at a time. Each guest nominated the next, creating momentum at the highest level. Eventually he interviewed the owner of the biggest armwrestling promotion in the world and convinced him to give him a shot on the mic at the next event.

Jake flew to Dubai. The event sold 25,000+ PPVs and 6,000+ tuned in to the press conference. He nailed it! Jake’s channel, and work, skyrocketed and in 2024 alone he travelled internationally 11 times – places like England, Ireland, Norway, Dubai, the USA, Canada and Mexico. WWE Hall of Famers were calling him directly and one even shaved his head live on stage. He had become the international voice of armwrestling.

The highest high came in Dubai. The world number one - nearly 180kgs and seemingly untouchable - faced the world number three. Most expected dominance. Instead, the underdog pushed him to his physical limits. The favourite needed an oxygen mask and the moment descended into chaos. Jake was on the mic. “That moment will never happen again,” he says. “And I was in the frame for it.”

But the rise wasn’t smooth. Around the time the channel was taking off, his wife - pregnant with their first child - was diagnosed with breast cancer and Jake was making about $10 a week from YouTube. It was his wife who told him to back himself and go all in. He quit his full-time job, and the community rallied around them.

“The sport has looked after my family,” he says.

Long before global recognition, Jake had already tested himself in extreme ways. After losing family members to breast cancer, he turned to endurance challenges to raise money — first 110km, then 1,000km from Sydney to Cranbourne, and eventually 1,500km from the Gold Coast to Melbourne. That final run meant 50km a day for 30 consecutive days, the “coolest” still 31 degrees, with two pairs of shoes melting into the road. When his body began shutting down, he reminded himself that people battling cancer don’t get to rest. He proposed to his wife at the Melbourne finish line and got the yes…Years later, he would need a hip replacement!

Now 41, Jake is in a different phase. The 11 international trips a year have become three or four, and one rule is locked in at home: he does not work in December. No travel. No events. Christmas belongs to his wife and daughters. When a major event once clashed with the expected birth of their second daughter, he stayed home and she arrived early. If he had worked, he would have missed it.

For someone who built a career chasing big moments, learning when to stay put has mattered just as much. Looking forward, his goals haven’t shrunk, they’ve sharpened. He still thinks big - major partnerships, commentating the AFL - but the pace is intentional now. And woven through all of it is gratitude for the woman who backed him when he was earning $10 a week, who set the December rule, and who believed in him long before the world did.

When the earpiece goes in and the red light switches on, Jake knows exactly who he is. That’s where he feels most alive. I asked Jake to describe his journey in three words - phenomenal, epic, relentless. Relentless because of the 2am alarms. Relentless because of chemo days and studio nights. Relentless because a bloke who barely made it through “cranny high” built a global platform from his kitchen & garage.