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. He 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.
Magnús Ver Magnússon is an Icelandic former powerlifter and strongman competitor. He is a four-time World's Strongest Man, having won in 1991, 1994, 1995, 1996 and is widely regarded as one of the greatest strongmen of all time.
The World's Strongest Man is an international strongman competition held every year. Organized by American event management company IMG, a subsidiary of Endeavor, it is broadcast in the US during summers and in the UK around the end of December each year. Competitors qualify based on placing in the top three at the four to eight Giants Live events each year. The current event sponsor is SBD Apparel. Previous sponsors include Tachi Palace, Coregenx, Commerce Hotel and Casino, DAF Trucks, Tonka, MET-Rx, and PartyPoker.com.
Svend 'Viking' Karlsen is a Norwegian former strongman, powerlifter, and IFBB professional bodybuilder. Being a winner of the World's Strongest Man, the Europe's Strongest Man, the World Muscle Power Classic and 3 times runner up at the Arnold Strongman Classic, he is regarded as one of the best strongmen in history. He is also well known for shouting his catch phrase "Viking Power!" during competitions.
In the 19th century, the term strongman referred to an exhibitor of strength or similar circus performers who performed feats of strength. Today, strength athletics, also known as strongman competitions, are composed of a variety of events in which competitors have to move the highest weights possible, the winner being the one having the highest tally across all events.
William Kazmaier is an American former world champion powerlifter, world champion strongman and professional wrestler. During the 1970s and 1980s, he set numerous powerlifting and strongman world records, and won two International Powerlifting Federation (IPF) World Championships and three World's Strongest Man titles. In the 1980s, Kazmaier became famous for his claim to be "the strongest man who ever lived" by equaling and surpassing spectacular and versatile feats of strength of famous strongmen of the 20th century. He is widely considered to be one of the all-time greatest competitors in strength competitions and was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame in 2017.
Mark Felix is a Grenadian-English strongman competitor and regular entrant to the World's Strongest Man competition. He has competed at a record 17 World's Strongest Man contests, reaching the finals three times. He is the winner of the 2015 Ultimate Strongman Masters World Championships, 2016 WSF World Cup India and has won numerous international grip contests, including the Rolling Thunder World Championships in 2008 and 2009, as well as the Vice Grip Viking Challenge in 2011 and 2012. Having competed in over 100 international competitions throughout 19 years, Felix is the 3rd most prolific strongman contestant in history.
Stefán Sölvi Pétursson is an Icelandic strongman and a finalist of the World's Strongest Man competition, winning 4th place in the 2010 World's Strongest Man competition held in Sun City and 9th place in the 2011 World's Strongest Man competition held in Wingate, North Carolina. He has also won Icelandic Strongman competitions multiple times including Iceland’s Strongest Man in 2009 and 2010.
Brian Shaw is an American professional strongman who is widely regarded as one of the greatest strength athletes of all-time. He won the 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2016 World's Strongest Man competitions, and in 2011, became the first man to win the Arnold Strongman Classic and the World's Strongest Man competitions in the same calendar year, a feat he replicated in 2015. With 26 international competition wins, he is the fourth most decorated strongman in history behind Lithuania's Žydrūnas Savickas, Poland's Mariusz Pudzianowski and Iceland's Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson.
Jarno Hams is a strongman from the Netherlands. He participated in the World's Strongest Man in 2002 and 2003, but failed to qualify for the finals both times. Hams is a 7-time winner of Strongest Man of the Netherlands.
The World Strongman Challenge was one of the most enduring annual strongmen competitions, running in various guises for twenty years, with only two years break. In that time it attained the position of one of the most prestigious strongman contest in the world, after the World's Strongest Man and the World Muscle Power Classic. As with its two international counterparts it attracted the top quality strength athletes of its era, which included every winner of the World's Strongest Man competition from 1980 onwards including Jón Páll Sigmarsson, Geoff Capes and Bill Kazmaier from the 1980s right up to the current WSM champion Žydrūnas Savickas.
Andrés Guðmundsson is an Icelandic Strongman and Highland Games competitor. He held the titles of the World Strongman Challenge and the European Hercules.
Strength athletics in Finland refers to the participation of Finnish competitors and events in the field of strength athletics in association with the World's Strongest Man.
Hjalti Árnason, nicknamed Hjalti Úrsus, is an Icelandic former strongman competitor and world champion powerlifter. Hjalti was known by the nickname "The Great Ursus". He first began in strength sports by competing as a junior powerlifter representing Iceland in 1983. Hjalti coached the great Jón Páll Sigmarsson and won the 1988 Le Defi Mark Ten International. He also competed with Magnús Ver Magnússon in Pure Strength team competitions in 1989 & 1990.
Strength athletics in Iceland refers to the participation of Icelandic competitors and the holding of Icelandic events in the modern phenomenon of strength athletics inaugurated by the World's Strongest Man. The sport's roots have a long and ancient history going back many centuries with the legends of Orm Storolfsson and Grettir Ásmundarson to the 19th century traditional strongmen inluding Snorri Björnsson, Brynjólfur Eggertsson and Gunnar Salómonsson; before the televisation of strongman competitions in the late 1970s.
Krzysztof Radzikowski is a professional strongman competitor from Głowno, Poland. He has competed in 112 International strongman competitions and has won 23 of them, making him the fifth most decorated strongman in history behind Žydrūnas Savickas, Mariusz Pudzianowski, Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson and Brian Shaw.
World's Strongest Team is an annual strongman contest organized by Ultimate Strongman that consists of two men teams from various countries all over the world. The teams are named according to their ancestral traits and geographical locations.
Oleksii Novikov is a Ukrainian professional strongman. He won the 2020 World's Strongest Man competition, becoming the second Ukrainian to win the title since Vasyl Virastyuk in 2004, and at 24 years, 278 days, he is also the second youngest winner in history, being only seven days elder than Jón Páll Sigmarsson in 1984. He is also a two time World's Ultimate Strongman, Rogue Invitational champion and Europe’s Strongest Man.
As a competitive strongman, Iceland's Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson has won 56 national and international competitions out of 96 he did from 2009 - 2020. Following his debut at 2009 Westfjord's Viking competition where he secured 4th place, he never failed to make it to the podium in the National circuit ever again, winning 26 out of 31 national competitions. At the international circuit, Hafþór has competed in 65 competitions across multiple strength federations, making it to the podium 49 times while winning 30 of them, making him the 3rd most decorated Strongman of all-time.
Páll Logason, also known as 'Fermeter', is an Icelandic powerlifter and a strongman from Garðabær.
