Otto Acron | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Alexander James Alsop 12 May 1935 |
| Occupation | Circus strongman, Wrestler, modern strongman |
Otto Acron (12 May 1935) is an Australian strongman.
Otto Acron | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Born | Alexander James Alsop 12 May 1935 |
| Occupation | Circus strongman, Wrestler, modern strongman |
Otto Acron (12 May 1935) is an Australian strongman.
Otto Acron was born 12 May 1935 as Alexander James Alsop in Sydney, Australia to Lilly Elizabeth and James Gess Alsop. He had two brothers, Ken his older and Ian his younger brother. His father worked on the railways as a boilermaker. Otto recalls him being a "very big man, not all muscle, but with very impressive big arms".
Otto liked to read Superman and Captain Marvel comics and was interested in the feats of strongmen and wrestlers from an early age. When he was 14 he suffered a severe injury during a friendly boxing match which damaged his brain and took years to heal. He became determined during recovery to train himself to be able to perform extraordinary physical feats. [1]
In 1955 he worked as a circus strongman on fairgrounds throughout New South Wales bending iron bars, breaking chains, getting run over by cars. He also worked in Roy Bell's, Jimmy Sharman's and Les McNabb's boxing tents taking on all comers.
In 1959 he approached Bullens Circus to work as a strongman. To get the job he had to carry a 1,000 lb (450 kg) horse up a 14 ft (4.3 m) ladder (a feat performed earlier by South African strongman William Pagel). This became one of his signature stunts, performed over 2,000 times in his career. He also became known for holding at bay two lorries, one with each arm and for having two elephants attempting to move him from the centre of the ring. [2]
In 1961 he joined Boswell Brother's Circus in South Africa. In December 1962 he wrestled for Dale Martin Promotions, wrestling all over England. In the summer of 1962 he worked for Circus Arnardo in Norway and returned to England, where he wrestled during the winter season. In the summer of 1963 he went and worked for Circus Toni Boltini in the Netherlands. He was married there and continued working in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany.
In August 1971 Otto Acron took on two aeroplanes in a tug of war at Rotterdam Airport. This was the first time he had performed this stunt that he would later perform with increasingly strong planes. [3] [4] [5]
In 1984 he entered many physique competitions, winning the masters: Mr. Sydney, Mr. Australia., Mr. Oceania, Mr. Southern Hemisphere. In 1984 and 1985, he entered power lifting competitions in the masters division, and became state champion and Australian champion for the 82.5 kg class. In 1992 he came seventh in the world power lifting contest.[ citation needed ]
In 1995 he left Sydney and took his family to Hervey Bay in Queensland where he started a gym called Otto's Fitness World.
In 2005, at the age of seventy he did 1125 push ups in half an hour to raise money for a young boy who needed a motorised wheel chair. [6]
On 14 November 2000, he was awarded the Australian Sports Medal. [7]
Louis Cyr was a Quebecois strongman with a career spanning the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His recorded feats, including lifting 500 pounds (227 kg) with one finger and backlifting 4,337 pounds (1,967 kg)(2 tons), show Cyr to be, according to former International Federation of BodyBuilding & Fitness chairman Ben Weider as stated in 2000, the strongest man ever.
Strength athletics, also known as Strongman competitions, is a sport which tests competitors' strength in a variety of non-traditional ways. Some of the disciplines are similar to those in powerlifting and some powerlifters have also successfully competed in strongman competitions. However, strongman events also test physical endurance to a degree not found in powerlifting or other strength-based sports, such as carrying refrigerators, flipping truck tires, and pulling vehicles with a rope.
Douglas Ivan Hepburn was a Canadian strongman and weightlifter. He won weightlifting gold medals in the 1953 World Weightlifting Championships as well as the 1954 British Empire Games in the heavyweight division. He is also known as the first man to bench press 400, 450, 500, and 550 pounds (raw). During the 1950s he was publicly known as the "world's strongest man" for his many feats of strength. Hepburn has been inducted into the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame (1953), Canada's Sports Hall of Fame (1955), and the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame (1966).
Paul Edward Anderson was an American weightlifter, strongman, and powerlifter. He was an Olympic gold medalist, a world champion, and a two-time national champion in Olympic weightlifting. Anderson contributed significantly to the development of competitive powerlifting.
In the 19th century, the term strongman referred to an exhibitor of strength or similar circus performers who performed feats of strength. More recently, strength athletics, also known as strongman competitions, have grown in popularity. These competitions are now 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.
Joseph L. Greenstein, better known as The Mighty Atom, was a 20th-century strongman.
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Donald Dinnie was a Scottish strongman, born at Balnacraig, Birse, near Aboyne, Aberdeenshire. Sometimes regarded as "The Nineteenth Century's greatest athlete", Dinnie's athletic career spanned over 50 years, and over 11,000 successful competitions.
Arthur Saxon, born Arthur Hennig and nicknamed "The Iron-Master", was a German strongman and circus performer from the late 19th century into the early 20th century. Saxon is best known for the bent press, a lift in which he was far superior to any other strongman, setting a world record of 168 kg (370 lb) which remains unbroken to this day. He also lifted 175 kg (385 lb) informally in a gym, as well as making a "two hands anyhow" lift of 203 kg (448 lb).
Grigory Irmovich Novak was a Jewish Soviet weightlifter who won a world title in 1946 and a silver medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics. During his career Novak set more than 50 world records, but only 18 became official: 14 in the press and 4 in the snatch.
Signor Lawanda born Hugh David Evans, was a nineteenth-century circus performer and strongman renowned for his strength.
William Bankier billed as 'Apollo, the Scottish Hercules', was a strongman stage performer who in 1915 and 1919 was also 'King Rat' of the showbusiness charity the Grand Order of Water Rats.
Ivan Fedorovych Firtsak-Kroton was Ukrainian circus performer, athlete, wrestler, boxer and freestyle wrestler, once said to be the world's strongest man.
George Dinnie was a sportsman, strongman, wrestler and champion dog breeder. For a while, he was part of the travelling show promoted by Henry Jasper Redfern in Sheffield, England, and often billed as the "strongest man on earth".
Alexander Vladimirovich Znamensky – a professional circus athlete, weight lifter, belt wrestler.
Charles "Ironman" Saliba (1929-1982), was a performing oldtime strongman from the island of Malta who performed feats of strength shows during the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s. Saliba was known as the "Ironman" or the "Man of Iron" and was also known as the strongest man in Europe.
Wirth's Circus, also known as Wirth Brothers' Circus, was Australia's largest and most prestigious circus company for eight decades. Billed as Australia's own 'Greatest show on Earth', the travelling circus held an international reputation.
