“Very unique character”- Arnold Schwarzenegger opens up on what led to his friendship with Franco Columbu

Arnold Schwarzenegger recently opened up on his good friendship with fellow bodybuilder in the day, Franco Columbu. The bodybuilding duo was regarded as one of the best the industry had ever witnessed.

Training together for decades and creating a legacy for themselves in a foreign land, Franco and Arnold participating in and winning countless bodybuilding titles throughout their careers. Meeting each other back in 1965 in Europe during a bodybuilding and powerlifting event, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Franco Columbu instantly connected and became close pals.

In a recent interview with Jenny Powell in Birmingham, UK, 'The Austrian Oak' shed light on how the duo became friends, and what was it about Franco Columbu that Arnold admired as a training partner.

"He was a very unique character. I was amazed like for instance that he was Italian and he spoke German...I could see right away that he was really hungry for learning and for improving, and for getting better...I said to him 'Lets become training partners when I move to Munich from Austria.' And that's exactly what we did," (13:19) Arnold said via the Inspire Me Podcast / An Experience With YouTube channel.

"He worked all day long in helping people, adjusting them, helping them to get healthy, give them food supplements, train them, and all this stuff. He was very successful. He trained even Sylvester Stallone for his movie Rambo number 2." (14:22)

Apart from being just training partners, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Franco Columbu also worked together for a long time in several business ventures.

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Franco Columbu made their first million together

A while back, Arnold Schwarzenegger sat for a podcast with Tim Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show. Schwarzenegger shed light on his friendship with Columbu and narrated tales from their business venture as construction workers. Revealing that bodybuilding wasn't a very lucrative field back then, Arnold and Franco used their talents as bricklayers to earn their first million.

"At that point, there was no money in bodybuilding. That's a key thing that everyone has to understand. Unlike today, where the top bodybuilding champions make millions of dollars, in those days there was no money in bodybuilding and so when we didn't have enough money we literally had to go to work." (20:26)

"Since Franco's talent was to be a bricklayer and very skilled bricklayer and learned that in Italy and Germany, we were able to go and start thinking about the idea of putting an ad in the LA Times creating a company, and calling it European brick layers and masonry experts, marble experts, building chimneys in fireplaces the European style." (20:45)

Despite Franco Columbu's sad demise in 2019, Arnold Schwarzenegger still regards Columbu as his best friend. Having trained together for years, the duo shared a special bond.

What are your views on Arnold Schwarzenneger and Franco Columbu's friendship? Let us know in the comments.