Carol Molnau's Arm-Twisting Past Revealed

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Editor’s note: This profile of Carol Molnau was originally published in the Herald Wednesday, Oct. 6, 1982.

Before reaching statewide prominence as lieutenant governor and transportation commissioner, she was an accomplished arm wrestling champion.

Tales of Molnau’s fetes of strength almost rank with those of fictional Minnesotan Paul Bunyan.

While representing Chaska in the Minnesota Legislature, she often went toe-to-toe with former professional wrestler/Gov. Jesse Ventura. And in a now-legendary tale, the former Chaska city councilor defeated Ventura in a keg-tossing competition, before they reached political prominence.

She’s been taking heat lately for her MnDOT leadership in the wake of the I-35 bridge collapse and her upcoming reconfirmation as commissioner (before a DFL-controlled senate) is up in the air. We thought it would be a good time to reprint this story.

Note that in the photo, she was demonstrating her arm wrestling technique with a Herald employee – not the last time she’s wrestled with the media.

Chaska area farm wife is arm wrestling champion

By Judy Schmidt

Most sports personalities are subject to getting in shape for a season or stashing away funds for equipment or uniforms. Not Carol Molnau. She just keeps on working as a dedicated farm wife.

This weekend Carol, of rural Chaska became the national women’s arm wrestling champion.

To do it she arm wrestled six competitors Saturday in Memphis, Tenn., among 60 from across the country who competed in the meet sponsored by the World Professional Arm Wrestling Association.

“My arm’s tired,” Carol smiled and said, as she talked about how she got into this very specialized sport.

“We were coming back from our first real vacation in 10 years of marriage a couple of years ago when I met an area woman in an airport who asked me whether I had ever thought about arm wrestling.”

At the time Carol said she thought the question bizarre but it turned out, after a conversation, that arm wrestlers are always looking at strong arms and hands of other people they see as potential competitors.

“What they saw in me was a woman of German heritage who has worked hard at farm work and developed strong arms and hands. I’m a big-boned woman,” Carol said. “It turns out I’m built for the sport.”

What she found as she explored the activity was that it was one in which she could compete without spending a lot of time in practice, with little expense and on her own time when the farm work allowed for relaxation. “I love softball but if you miss a game you let the team down.”

For the year and a half she’s been involved in the competition, including about a dozen state or area meets, Molnau has never lost a match. She sometimes takes 40 seconds to defeat an opponent, but more often it’s done in two or three seconds.

It’s a matter of strength, technique and mental attitude, the 33-year-old blonde wife, mother and homemaker said.

Her husband, Steve, and daughters, 13, 9 and 5, have encouraged her in the sport because they know her to be an athletic woman who loves to compete.

“My kids never doubt I’m going to win,” she said.

In the national competition, Carol was, at about 175 pounds, the lightweight of her division. She wrestled one woman who weighed 240 and others ranging from 190 to 219 pounds. Only one broken arm resulted from those competing, she said. That was because the woman admitted she had not worked with her arm for six weeks and failed to keep her wrestling arm close to her body, an absolute must to prevent bone injury.

“The problem in this sport,” she explained, “is that the muscles get so much stronger than the bone, they can help snap it if the arm is used the wrong way.”

While Carol said there is a lot of interest in the sport in specific communities in the state — Duluth, Coon Rapids, St. Louis Park and northeast Minneapolis – it has only in the past nine years been regimented with rules, safety equipment (padded, special sized tables for the arms and elbows) and even referees.

“I guess people do sit around and arm wrestling in bars,” she said. “But nobody would enter real competition after drinking. In this sport mental attitude and technique are at least as important as your strength. You can’t count on that if you drink beforehand.”

Carol is tall enough to meet most of her competition elbow to elbow. It’s a disadvantage to try this sport if you are short, she said.

Although she said she saw about half a dozen women in the national meet who walked around on blocks of wood about 8 or 10 inches high so they could get the strong stance and height advantage needed in the meet.

The way Carol prepares for the meet, she said, is to lift weights to strengthen her upper arms and back, continue helping with the farming of 600 acres and milking of 50 cows.

“For years,” said Carol, “I’ve worried about never being able to buy a frilly blouse with sleeves that fit around my large wrist. Now that’s the sort of thing I don’t worry about, and my children are encouraged by my interest to get involved in their own sports interest.”