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.
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.
Riku Kiri is a Finnish former strongman and powerlifter, best known for competing in the World's Strongest Man competition, narrowly missing out on capturing the title on more than one occasion. He has been referred to as: "the strongest man never to win World's Strongest Man."
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.
Jamie Reeves is a British former coal miner, strongman and professional wrestler. As a strongman, he won the 1989 World's Strongest Man, was World Muscle Power champion, and also had numerous other titles including Europe's Strongest Man and Britain's Strongest Man. Following retirement from competitive sport he continued to be involved in strength athletics as a referee, event promoter and coach.
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 Beauty and The Beast Strongman Challenge, also known as the Beauty and The Beast World Strongman Challenge was a short-lived annual strongman competition that was notable for the calibre of the entrants it attracted, as well as for the reputation it attained in a short amount of time.
The World Muscle Power Classic (WMPC) was one of the most enduring annual strongman competitions, running for twenty years and in that time attaining the position of the second most prestigious strongman contest in the world, after the World's Strongest Man. It was notable for that reason and for the quality of the strength athletes it attracted, 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 five time WSM champion Mariusz Pudzianowski and four time WSM champion Žydrūnas Savickas, both of whom were never able to capture the WMPC title.
Brian Shaw is an American retired 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 27 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.
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.
Pure Strength was a strongman competition held from 1987 to 1990 which was created by Tjalling van den Bosch.
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.
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.
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 including Snorri Björnsson, Brynjólfur Eggertsson and Gunnar Salómonsson; before the televisation of strongman competitions in the late 1970s.
The Húsafell Stone is a legendary lifting stone weighing 186 kg (410 lb) located in a west country farming estate in Húsafell, Iceland about 132 km (82 mi) north east from Reykjavík. The slightly triangular, slab shaped stone is kept at a sheep and goat pen built from natural stones by Reverend Snorri Björnsson in the early 19th century, and was made famous by the legend of his daughter Guðný Snorradóttir carrying it. The stone has been used as a test of physical strength by either simply lifting the stone, or by lifting and carrying it around the sheep and goat pen. The Stone is also known as pen slab (Kvíahellan in Icelandic), because its original purpose was to act as the gate to the sheep and goat pen, ensuring the animals remain in the pen without escaping.
Mark Higgins 
