Žydrūnas Savickas is a Lithuanian powerlifter and professional strongman. Due to his multiple championship wins in all major international strongman competitions, as well as his longevity in the sport, he is widely considered by many to be the greatest strength athlete of all time.
The International Federation of Strength Athletes was an international governing body for strongman competition. IFSA operated from 1995-2007 and was based in Glasgow, Scotland.
Hugo Girard is a Canadian former strongman. He is a Strongman Super Series world Champion, a four-time World Muscle Power champion and a six-time Canada's Strongest Man.
Derek Poundstone is an American former professional strongman athlete from Woodbridge, Connecticut who placed runner-up at the 2008 World's Strongest Man. Derek Poundstone is also a police Sergeant for the Naugatuck, Connecticut Police Department and is the former owner and landlord of an apartment complex and gym.
Travis Ortmayer is an American professional Strongman athlete from Cypress, Texas. He is nicknamed the Texas Stoneman due to his many world records in the Atlas Stone event.
Jessen Paulin is a Canadian Strongman. A resident of Gatineau, Quebec, Paulin is known for being a multiple-Quebec's Strongest Man champion and a two-time Canada's Strongest Man in 2005 and 2006 succeeding, multiple-time champion and former World Champion Hugo Girard who was in rehabilitation following a surgery on an injured foot. In 2007, he was crowned the North America's Strongest Man, an event that featured six Canadian and six American strongman athletes. Jessen won this title again in 2008.
Sebastian Wenta, also known as Wentyl, is a former shot putter, strongman, and Highland Games competitor from Poland. Wenta's athletic career started with volleyball, and he eventually moved on to the shot put and discus throw. He began competing in strongman in 2005 and has quickly risen through the ranks. His biggest accomplishment to date is coming in second at the 2007 World's Strongest Man contest.
Karl Gillingham is an American professional strongman and powerlifter.
David Ostlund is an American professional strongman competitor. He grew up in Edina, Minnesota and attended Edina High School. Ostlund was a member of the Edina track and field team and competed in the shot put and discus events. It was his weight training for track that initially sparked his interest in the sport of strongman.
The Strongman Champions League is a strongman competition circuit, with several Grand Prix events throughout the year and the Strongman Champions League overall champion title going to the overall winner at the end of the season. The competitors include some of the top athletes in the sport, including Žydrūnas Savickas, Krzysztof Radzikowski, Travis Ortmayer, Nick Best, Mikhail Koklyaev, Ervin Katona, Andrus Murumets, Laurence Shahlaei, Vytautas Lalas and Terry Hollands. Initially in close partnership with IFSA, it quickly asserted its independence and has acted as a unifying force in the world of strength athletics, bringing together athletes from IFSA with those affiliated to the World's Strongest Man circuit, and having close cooperation with other major events such as Fortissimus. In 2012, SCL began co-promoting the new Arnold Strongman Classic-Europe contest which will become part of the annual SCL season of events.
The Fortissimus is a defunct event in strength athletics. The name means "the mightiest" and was a multi-event challenge at the end of which the winner is crowned as the "Strongest Man on Earth". It was set up to bring together the strongest competitors on the planet independent of the organisations to which they were signed, and also as a tribute to the nineteenth-century Canadian strongman Louis Cyr, which gave it many similarities to Le Defi Mark Ten International which last took place in Canada in the early 1990s. After its first airing in 2008, the strength athletics magazine Milo described it as the ultimate strongman competition ever held. Despite a successful edition in 2009, a reported lack of a major sponsor for 2010 resulted in the competition being suspended, no future contests have been announced.
The World's Strongest Man 2009 was the 32nd edition of World's Strongest Man and took place in Valletta, Malta from 26 September to 3 October 2009. It was sponsored by PartyPoker.com. It was anticipated by the strength athletics world as promising to be "the best one yet." The anticipation was based on the organisers ensuring invites were made to "every top athlete in the world" regardless of their affiliation to any particular strength athletics body. In previous years, the schism between the International Federation of Strength Athletes and the organisers of WSM had meant that certain athletes were forbidden to compete, undermining the credentials of the competition.
Brian Shaw is an American professional strongman competitor and winner of the 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2016 World's Strongest Man competitions. In 2011, he became the first man to win the Arnold Strongman Classic and the World's Strongest Man contests in the same calendar year, a feat he replicated in 2015.
Louis-Phillipe Jean is a Canadian strongman competitor and entrant to the World's Strongest Man competition on multiple occasions.
Ervin Katona is a Serbian strongman competitor and regular entrant to the World's Strongest Man competition. Katona is an ethnic Hungarian.
Strength athletics in Canada refers to the various strongman events throughout Canada and its provinces in the sport of [strength athletics] in association with the World's Strongest Man. The roots of strongman in Canada go back long before the birth of WSM in 1977, particularly with [Louis Cyr] in the early 1900s, who was deemed the "Strongest Man on Earth" during his lifetime. Four Canadian athletes have finished on the podium, placing 2nd in 1982 with Tom Magee and 3rd in 2005 with Dominic Filiou, Jean-François Caron placing 3rd in 2020, and Maxime Boudrealt placing 3rd in 2021. The provinces of Canada hold annual championships with the top 2-4 athletes going on to the National Championships at the end of the year to crown Canada's Strongest Man.
Strength athletics in the United States refers to the various strongman events throughout United States and North America in the sport of strength athletics in association with the World's Strongest Man ("WSM") contest. America has both an amateur and a professional sanctioning body.
Luke Skaarup is a professional engineer and also a retired professional strongman from Canada who competed actively in the sport of strongman from 2007 to 2015. During his competitive career, he held many records, most notably the Canadian record for heaviest atlas stone ever lifted in competition, the Ontario record for heaviest deadlift, and the Ontario Record heaviest dumbbell press. He competed in over sixty competitions with his top placings being the 2 x Ontario's Strongest Man Champion, 4th at North America's Strongest Man (2014), and 8th at the World Amateur Strongman Championships (2012).
Maxim Lemire is a Canadian strongman and professional wrestler.
Canada