 | A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject.(September 2023) |
 Tony "The Strongman" Farrugia | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nationality |  Maltese |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Strongman |
Tony "The Strongman" Farrugia, is a performing oldtime strongman from the isle of Malta who performed feats of strength shows during the 2010s and 2020s. Farrugia is known as "The Strongman" and is also known as the strongest man in Malta. [1] [2]
During his younger years Farrugia was interested in stone lifting and strongman. [3] Farrugia started stone lifting at an early age after being inspired by stories of his grandfather who was a renowned stone lifter in Malta. [4] In later years Farrugia trained himself as an oldtime performing strongman in order for him to be able to perform feats of strength shows. [5]
Farrugia started his performing strongman career during the 2010s. At the beginning of his career Farrugia began performing at a number of outdoor venues around Malta and Gozo, usually at truck shows and car shows. From the beginning of his strongman career Farrugia dedicated his shows to charitable causes. [6] During his performances Farrugia performs a variety of feats, [7] which mainly involve feats of strength. [8] Some of Farrugia's feats involve him lifting cars and pulling heavy vehicles including trucks and buses and lifting large iron skips. [9] Other feats performed by Farrugia involve him bending steel objects, ripping telephone directories and decks of cards in half and lifting gas cylinders with his pinky fingers. [10] In 2016 Farrugia teamed up with a veteran performing strongman called Paul "Mr. Cool" Grima, together they created the strongman team called 'Tony & Cool'. [11] [12] In 2022 Farrugia performed on episode 2 of the second season of Malta's Got Talent where he received four yeses from the judges. Farrugia then appeared on episode 7, the judges deliberation phase, were he then qualified for the live semi-final phase. Farrugia performed in the semi-final but failed to reach the final after being eliminated during the televoting phase. [13] [14]
Louis Cyr was a French Canadian 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), show Cyr to be, according to former International Federation of BodyBuilding and Fitness chairman Ben Weider as stated in 2000, the strongest man ever.
Sliema Wanderers Football Club, nicknamed "tax-Xelin", is a professional Maltese football club. It is the most successful team in Malta and hails from the seaside town of Sliema. It currently plays in the Maltese Premier League.
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.
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.
The deadlift is a weight training exercise in which a loaded barbell or bar is lifted off the ground to the level of the hips, torso perpendicular to the floor, before being placed back on the ground. It is one of the three powerlifting exercises, along with the squat and bench press, as well as a frequent lift in strongman.
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).
Grip strength is the force applied by the hand to pull on or suspend from objects and is a specific part of hand strength. Optimum-sized objects permit the hand to wrap around a cylindrical shape with a diameter from one to three inches. Stair rails are an example of where shape and diameter are critical for proper grip in case of a fall. Other grip strengths that have been studied are the hammer and other hand tools. In applications of grip strength, the wrist must be in a neutral position to avoid developing cumulative trauma disorders.
Strongman is someone who exhibits strength through strength athletics. 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. In the 19th century, the term strongman referred to an exhibitor of strength or similar circus performers who performed feats of strength.
A strongwoman is a woman who performs feats of strength in a show or circus, or a woman who competes in strength athletics. Traditionally, strongwomen have had a special appeal, as women involved in demonstrated feats of strength were exceptions.
Thomas Inch was a British strongman, who held the titles of Britain's Strongest Youth and Britain's Strong Man.
Hermann Görner, was a famous German strongman. Görner performed in various countries and achieved feats of strength rarely matched to this day, most notably in lifts requiring exceptional grip strength.
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.
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, making him one of only five men to win the World’s Strongest Man four times or more. 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.
Warren Lincoln Travis was the first famous strongman in the United States of America and a world champion back and hip lifter, who performed feats of strength on Coney Island in the first quarter of the 20th century.
Jimmy Laureys is a Belgian powerlifter and strongman competitor.
Martins Licis is a Latvian-American professional strongman, notable for winning 2019 World's Strongest Man, 2022 Arnold Strongman Classic, and 2021 Rogue Invitational strongman championships.
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.
Joe "Powerful" Falzon (1932-2023), was a performing oldtime strongman from the isle of Malta who performed feats of strength shows during the 1960s and 1970s. Falzon was known as "The Powerful" and "The Strongman" and was also known as the strongest man in Malta.
Anthony "il-Walker" Zarb (1904-1993), was a performing oldtime strongman from the isle of Malta who performed feats of strength shows from the 1920s until the 1970s. Zarb was known as "il-Walker" and the "Steel Bending Champion of Malta" and was renowned in Malta for his steel bending shows.
Paul "Mr. Cool" Grima is a performing strongman from Malta.