Riku Kiri


Riku Kiri is a Finnish former strongman and powerlifter. He is best known for competing in the World's Strongest Man competition, narrowly missing out on capturing the title on more than one occasion. Several strength analysts and historians regard him as "the strongest man never to win World's Strongest Man".
Having competed in 28 International strongman competitions, he has won 14 of them, including Europe's Strongest Man title three times.

Early life and career

Kiri was a child prodigy and started lifting weights at the age of seven.
At 19 years old in 1983, Kiri held a World Record in powerlifting in the squat in IPF competition, with a lift of in 125 kg weight category. In one of his first ever strongman competitions in 1985, he defeated the reigning World's Strongest Man Jón Páll Sigmarsson.
The 1.94 m, prime Kiri is particularly noted for his static strength including a single-arm deadlift and a raw bench press. He squatted in the Dutch Open strongman contest of 1995 in a Smith machine apparatus. He also bench pressed raw in an official WPC meet along with many other records.
For most of his appearances in World's Strongest Man competition, Kiri was hampered by ankle injuries. Although Kiri placed 3rd and 2nd respectively in 1993 and 1996, ankle injuries plagued him during both contests. In reference to the Car Carry event in 1993, Kiri's coach, Markku Suonenvirta, famously said: "His ankle is broken but he's a tough guy." Kiri's ankle was in fact not broken but badly injured and weakened. In the 1996 WSM final event Kiri was about to go head to head with Magnus Ver Magnusson. However, just after the starter's whistle, Kiri dropped out due to another ankle injury. Kiri was also forced to drop out of the 1998 World's Strongest Man final due to an ankle injury, finishing in 6th place.
His background is in security work, and he holds shares in Gold's Gym-Helsinki.

Personal records

Strongman

  • Deadlift – x 4 reps, x 7 reps
  • Silver dollar safe squat – × 4 reps
  • Smith machine Squat –
  • Log press –
  • Log press – x 15 reps
  • Atlas stones – 5 stones weighing
  • Hercules hold – in each hand for 63.60 seconds
  • Natural Stone press –
  • Stone block throw – over
  • Keg toss – over
  • Duck walk – for 12m course in 15.03 seconds
  • Cable drum push – on a 5 hump course in 38.41 seconds
  • Arm over arm plane pull – for 15m course in 27.70 seconds

    Powerlifting

  • Squat –
  • Bench press –
  • Bench press – x 14 reps
  • Deadlift –
  • Total –