O.D. Wilson


Oders Dell Wilson Jr. was an American powerlifter and a strongman. He was known by the nickname "the Nightmare", mainly due to his size.
Several strength analysts and historians regard Wilson as the strongest athlete to have never won World's Strongest Man title.

Early life

Wilson was battered as a child by his father. During his childhood he was a track and field athletes specialized in the 200 m dash, and a basketball player. He worked as a farmhand which helped him developed strength and after graduation, helped neighborhood crime watch program. He enrolled in the military and served for 12 years, eight of which were spent overseas in Germany, Japan, and Korea and also engaged in racquetball and boxing for a couple of years. In 1981, he started lifting weights.
When Wilson was not competing, he was a security guard and a bodyguard to various celebrities, including Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson.

Career

Wilson came close to being the first American since Bill Kazmaier to win the World's Strongest Man title in 1990. Leading the competition with five and a half points before the last event, a 200m race with a 100 kg weight on the back. Wilson lacked the endurance and running speed to complete the course and ended up losing by half a point to Jón Páll Sigmarsson in the overall competition. Wilson vowed to win the 1991 World's Strongest Man title, but a back injury sustained just before the competition, a prolapsed disc, hampered his performance. Wilson would finish in fifth place.
Wilson was a successful powerlifter. He was a five-time U.S. Services champion and a five-time U.S. Army titleholder. He won the 1988 USPF National Super Heavyweight Powerlifting title, as well as the 1988 IPF World Powerlifting Championships. Some of Wilson's training partners were also notable World's Strongest Man competitors including Rick "Grizzly" Brown, Bill Kazmaier and James Perry, who competed in the 1992 World's Strongest Man.
Wilson set multiple world records throughout his career; at the 1989 USPF Armed Forces Championships he squatted, bench pressed, and deadlifted for a then all-time total record of in single ply equipment. Wilson's weight at that meet was measured at. It is believed that he had one of the biggest ever quadriceps, measuring upwards of 36 inches. Wilson's shoe size was 18 and his ring size was 26, while the ring size for the average adult male is between 10 and 12.
Wilson also appeared in a 1989 science fiction action film Cyborg featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme. He is considered by many to be the strongest man to never win the World's Strongest Man contest, along with Riku Kiri and Derek Poundstone.

Death

On October 29, 1991, while being interviewed on a radio program just a few weeks after the 1991 World's Strongest Man competition, Wilson complained of chest pains and went outside for some fresh air. Within moments, he collapsed and died of cardiac arrest. He was just 37 years old.

Personal records

Powerlifting
  • Squat – single-ply equipment
  • Bench Press – single-ply equipment
  • Deadlift – single-ply equipment
  • Total – single-ply equipment
Strongman