Jón Páll Sigmarsson was an Icelandic strongman, powerlifter and bodybuilder who was the first man to win the World's Strongest Man four times. He is 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.
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.
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."
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.
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. With 15 international competition wins, he's the eighth most decorated strongman in history.
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.
Nick Best is an American professional strongman competitor and world champion powerlifter.
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.
Benedikt "Benni" Magnússon is an Icelandic strongman and powerlifter. He holds the raw deadlift world record at 460.4 kg (1,015 lb) since 2011. He also set the world record for the heaviest strongman deadlift of 461 kg (1,016 lb) in 2014, which stood until Eddie Hall lifted 462 kg (1,019 lb) the next year.
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. With 26 international competition wins, he's the fourth most decorated strongman in history behind Žydrūnas Savickas, Mariusz Pudzianowski and Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson.
Kostiantyn Ilin is a leading Ukrainian strongman competitor and entrant to 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.
Farzad Mousakhani is an Iranian strongman competing for Iran in international strongman competitions.
Mike Jenkins was an American professional strongman competitor from Westminster, Maryland. Jenkins worked as a high school athletics director at Milton Hershey School in Hershey Pa, when not competing as a strongman. He was a college and professional football player before switching over to strongman competition in 2007. He won the Maryland's Strongest Man contest in 2007 which qualified him for the North American amateur national strongman championships later that year and he placed sixth in that contest. He placed second in the North American nationals in 2009.
Krzysztof Radzikowski is a professional strongman competitor from Głowno, Poland. He has competed in 109 International strongman competitions and have won 22 of them, making him the fifth most decorated strongman in history behind Žydrūnas Savickas, Mariusz Pudzianowski, Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson and Brian Shaw.
Jean-François Caron is a Canadian strongman and powerlifter from Les Hauteurs, Quebec, Canada.
The 2012 World's Strongest Man was the 35th edition of World's Strongest Man. The event was held on the grounds of the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles, California, US. The event was sponsored by MET-Rx. The qualifying heats were held from September 24–27, and the finals took place Sept. 30 & Oct. 1, 2012. The winner was Žydrūnas Savickas, it was his third WSM title. Vytautas Lalas of Lithuania was second, and Iceland's Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson was third.
Edward Stephen Hall is a British former professional strongman and actor who has also fought as a boxer.
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