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| Born |  Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation | Strongman | ||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Commander Grant Edwards is a high-ranking Australian law enforcement officer and former elite athlete and strongman competitor and entrant to the World's Strongest Man competition.
Grant Edwards competed on the international circuit prior to his initial 1997 triumph in Australia's Strongest Man. [1] He was well known for displays of strength and in the greatest feats of strength section of the 2001 edition of Guinness Book of Records, Grant Edwards was picked out for special mention for his feat of single-handedly pulling a 201-ton steam locomotive a distance of 36.8 metres along a railroad track at Thirlmere, NSW, Australia, on 4 April 1996. [2] The 1999 win in Australia's Strongest Man led to an invitation to the prestigious World's Strongest Man in 1999. Drawn in the same group as Magnus Samuelsson, Edwards was directly matched up against the Swede in the log lift, losing 10 lifts to 2. Magnus won the group and Edwards failed to progress to the final. Edwards also pulled the 386 Tall Ship 'Bounty' in Sydney Harbour a distance of 25 metres on 3 April 1996. [3] as well as a 220-ton steam locomotive for charity in Canberra in 1997. [4] Other feats of strength include pulling C130 Military Aircraft at Richmond NSW for charity live on the former Channel 9 Midday Show with Kerri-Anne.
Over the course of his strongman career, Edwards exhibited his feats of strength on programs such as the Footy Show, Hey Hey it's Saturday and the Bert Newton Show. He regularly appeared on Nine's Wide World of Sports, Channel Seven's Sportsworld and ESPN.
Edwards was also a Highland Games competitor. One of his notable achievements was winning the Scottish heavy throws contest at the 1997 Rosneath and Clynder Highland Games. He totalled 30 points to defeat Robert McKee (US) and Ivo Degelling (Netherlands) who finished second equal with 27 points. [5]
Prior to competing in strength events Edwards represented Australia in Track and Field in the shot put and hammer throw at Seoul Junior Open South Korea 1982 gaining a bronze medal. [6] He would later be selected in the Australian University Team for Track and Field in 1996 in the same events. Edwards has recently returned to track and field at the Masters level and currently holds a number of Australian Master records in Field events.
In 1991 Edwards would change tack and became a member of the Australian Bobsleigh Team competing in the World Cup circuit throughout Europe and North America and as a member of the 1992 and 1994 Australian Winter Olympic Squad. [7] He was also one of the original Australians to secure an American Football scholarship at the University of Hawaii in 1982. [8]
Outside of his strongman and sporting career, Edwards pursued a career within the Australian police. He joined the Australian Federal Police (AFP) in 1985 and worked in Sydney, Newcastle, Canberra and Los Angeles covering such areas as family law, international drug trafficking and people smuggling. [9] He established the AFP's Transnational Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking Team [10] in 2003, which addresses crimes of transnational sexual exploitation and travelling child sex offenders. From here he took the position of Chair of the Interpol Expert working Group on trafficking in Women and Children, becoming an international expert in this field. He went on to work as the National Surveillance Coordinator, Coordinator of Transnational Crime Intelligence and in 2006 gained promotion to Commander, in his capacity as Manager Criminal Intelligence Collection. [9] In January 2008, Commander Edwards was posted to East Timor (Timor-Leste) as Security Advisor to the Secretary of State for Security within the Government of East Timor. His work within this role was praised by the Minister for Home Affairs, Brendan O'Connor, who echoed and endorsed comments made by the East Timor Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão. O'Connor said "Praise from the Prime Minister of Timor-Leste His Excellency Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão today, is testament to Commander Edwards' professionalism and the dedication that he has brought to the role. His efforts have gone a long way to strengthening relationships between Australia and Timor-Leste". [11]
José Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmão is an East Timorese politician. He has served as the 6th prime minister of East Timor since 2023, previously serving in that position from 2007 to 2015. A former rebel, he also served as East Timor's first president since its re-establishment of independence, from 2002 to 2007.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) is the national and principal federal law enforcement agency of the Australian Government with the unique role of investigating crime and protecting the national security of the Commonwealth of Australia. The AFP is an independent agency of the Attorney-General's Department and is responsible to the Attorney-General and accountable to the Parliament of Australia. As of October 2019 the Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police is Reece Kershaw, formerly the Northern Territory Police Commissioner.
Mari bin Amude Alkatiri is a Timorese politician. He was Prime Minister of East Timor from May 2002 until his resignation on 26 June 2006 following weeks of political unrest in the country, and again from September 2017 until May 2018. He is the Secretary-General of the Fretilin party and was the former President of the Special Administrative Region of Oecusse.
Jón Páll Sigmarsson was an Icelandic strongman, powerlifter and bodybuilder who was the first man to win the World's Strongest Man four times and the first and only man to win the World Muscle Power Classic five times. Jón Páll is widely regarded as one of the greatest strongmen of all time, and is credited with developing Iceland's national identity. He was named Icelandic Sportsperson of the Year in 1981, and was one of the best-known Icelandic athletes. In 2012, Jón Páll was inducted into the World's Strongest Man Hall of Fame.
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Kirsty Sword Gusmão, is an Australian-East Timorese activist who served as the First Lady of East Timor from 2002 until 2007. She is married to Xanana Gusmão, former prime minister and president of East Timor, though they separated in 2015. She is the founding director of the Alola Foundation, which seeks to improve the lives of women in Timor-Leste, a nation with one of the world's lowest per capita GDPs.
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