World's Strongest Man
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.
The competition has been won by 25 men representing 14 nationalities. Three of the past champions Bill Kazmaier, Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson and Brian Shaw have been inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame.
History
There are now several documentaries available that chart the history of WSM. The first major one is Worlds Strongest Man - Thirty Years Of Pain from 2008, celebrating the 30th anniversary. In 2017, a series of videos were released in recognition of the 40th anniversary of the contest.1970s–1980s
The concept behind "The World's Strongest Men", as it was originally named, was developed in 1977 for CBS by Langstar Inc. David Webster, a Scot who later received an OBE for his services to sport, was the head coordinator of the competition from its inception. Douglas Edmunds, seven-time Scottish shot and discus champion and twice world caber champion, worked with Webster and when Webster retired, Edmunds took over. These two men were responsible for inviting the competitors and choosing the events. In the meantime, in 1982, CBS sold the rights to the BBC, who in turn sold the rights to TWI. In 1987, the WSM was not held for the only time since its inception. In that year, the first and only non-team Pure Strength competition was held, but it was not part of the WSM franchise.For the first several contests, American color commentators and analysts were used on the network broadcast. These included Brent Musburger, Tom Brookshier, and acknowledged strength authority, journalist and author Terry Todd. Todd was a former powerlifting world record holder himself and went on to establish the H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports in 1990. He also was asked to establish the Arnold Strongman Classic in 2002 by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
During this early period, the contest ranks consisted mostly of American football players, powerlifters, and bodybuilders and were held in American locations until it was moved to Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1983. Two-time winner Bruce Wilhelm retired and was succeeded by Don Reinhoudt in 1979, a 162.1 kg heavyweight powerlifter of the US. Reinhoudt still holds several unequipped world records in powerlifting.
In 1979, newcomer and powerlifter Bill Kazmaier made his appearance, coming in 3rd after leading much of the competition. He dominated the sport to such an extent from 1980 to 1982, winning by a record 28 points in 1980. He reportedly was excluded from the competition for five years, after becoming the first man to win three consecutive WSM titles. He set prodigious marks with a 478.6 kg silver dollar coin deadlift, 439.6 kg squat, and a then-record 165.6 kg log lift with a rough, unbalanced log. This eventually earned him a place in the WSM Hall of Fame.
After Kazmaier left, his nearest rival, former Olympian Geoff Capes from the UK, traded wins with the Icelandic powerlifter Jón Páll Sigmarsson, with Capes winning in 1983 and 1985, and Sigmarsson in 1984 and 1986. Sigmarsson raised the popularity and awareness of the event to new levels. He died three years after winning his 4th and final WSM in 1990. In 1987, Sigmarsson defeated Capes and Kazmaier in Pure Strength. Kazmaier returned to WSM in 1988, but could not dethrone Sigmarsson, who won his 3rd title. The only other man to claim the title in this era was Jamie Reeves, which he did in 1989. Reeves was injured in 1990, as Sigmarsson narrowly claimed his 4th title ahead of O.D. Wilson, who was leading by 5.5 points going into the final event, a controversial 200m race with 100 kg on the back. Sigmarsson won the event, and the much larger Wilson finished way down the field, meaning Jon Pall became the first man to claim four titles.
1990s
In 1995, Edmunds and Webster, along with representatives from the competitors including Jamie Reeves, Ilkka Kinnunen and Marcel Mostert formed a governing body called the International Federation of Strength Athletes. The IFSA began organizing bespoke events, such as the IFSA European Championships and also took the lead in working with the BBC and with TWI to organize the World's Strongest Man competition. For almost a decade, the IFSA and WSM were inextricably mixed, but this changed in 2004. The InvestGroup Ventures' sports rights management arm, InvestGroup Sports Management, invested heavily into IFSA and this led to the creation of IFSA Strongman. The strategy was to acquire most of the international assets and properties relating to the strongman sport. In essence, this was a new organisation with some, such as Magnus Samuelsson, describing it as "a new company... with the same name as our old federation". The attempt at dominance was not well received by TWI and disagreement ensued leading to a split in the sport. Previously, in 2001, the IFSA in its former guise had entered an agreement with World Class Events, headed by Ulf Bengtsson, to run the Super Series. This Super Series was designed to award the World Championship title, but also acted as a qualifying vehicle for the WSM. When strongman split in 2004, the Super Series sided with TWI forming a rival federation to the IFSA. With the WSM being a TWI owned event, IFSA Holdings announced its own World Championships for 2005, to be held in Quebec, and thus from that point had no involvement in the WSM contest.The split with IFSA, which banned its registered athletes from competing at WSM, meant that not all the recognized best strength athletes in the world were eligible to compete. However, the reputation of WSM as the premier event maintained its lure for broadcasting purposes. In recent years, the competition has been broadcast on ESPN, ESPN2, TSN, Televisa Deportes and Five, and currently CBS Sports Network in the US. The longevity of the contest in strength athletics and its high levels of TV exposure over the years has led to it being described as "the granddaddy of all strongman contests".
No other strongman contest commands close to the WSM's levels of TV exposure. The World's Strongest Man claims a viewership of 220 million.
In the early 1990s, Magnús Ver Magnússon won the title four times and became the second and only man along with Kazmaier to win three consecutive titles. He came into the 1991 contest as the reserve and ended up winning the show, and is the only man to do so.
Magnús also finished second in both 1992 and 1993. The 1992 contest was won by Dutchman Ted van der Parre, who at 7 feet tall, is the tallest man ever to win or compete at the World's Strongest Man. In one of the closest contests in the competition's history, just one point separated van der Parre in first from Magnús and Jamie Reeves, who tied for second. In 1993, Welshman Gary Taylor became the shortest man to ever win the contest at just 6 feet tall, defeating Magnús and Riku Kiri of Finland.
Magnús eventually won his second title in 1994, defeating Austrian Manfred Hoeberl in a closely-fought contest, with Kiri finishing third for the second year running. He retained his title the following year, with South African Gerrit Badenhorst and Finland's Marko Varalahti completing the podium. In 1996, Magnús made it to three titles in a row, with his closest competitor Kiri pulling out of the final event due to injury, but still finishing in second. Badenhorst made the podium for the second year in a row. None of these three men reached the final the following year.
The late 1990s saw Scandinavian countries taking control of the title, and this lasted until 2002. The relatively light 125 kg but dynamic Jouko Ahola from Finland won two titles in three years, 1997 and 1999. He later became a referee in WSM/strongman events and an actor. Sweden's Magnus Samuelsson won claim the 1998 title, becoming the only man to defeat Ahola in a WSM contest.
2000s
Following Ahola's retirement, fellow Finn Janne Virtanen improved on his 1999 runner up finish and take the title for himself in 2000. The final Scandinavian in this group to take the title was Norwegian Svend Karlsen, who did so in 2001.The early to late 2000s were dominated by five-time Polish winner Mariusz Pudzianowski, earning him the nickname "The Dominator". Looking muscular and defined, he temporarily redefined what a strongman was in the world's eyes. At about 142 kg at max weight, he routinely beat men much bigger than he was. He combined speed and substantial strength in one package. Indeed, he was so dominant that three of his five championships were won with an event to spare. His final win was in 2008 as bigger and taller men came into the sport.
Pudzianowski's first title was in 2002, as the era of Scandinavian dominance came to an end, with Lithuanian Žydrūnas Savickas and Latvian Raimonds Bergmanis completing the podium. He defended his title in 2003 in spectacular fashion. He won four of the seven events, and claiming two second places and a third place in the remaining events to finish with 66 out of a possible 70 points, and 20 ahead of runner up Savickas. 2003 was also the first appearance of Ukrainian Vasyl Virastyuk, who finished 3rd.
In 2004, Savickas and Virastyuk were tied for the lead heading into the final event, the Atlas Stones. Virastyuk defeated Savickas to claim the title, with the Lithuanian finishing as runner-up for the 3rd year in a row. Originally, Mariusz Pudzianowski finished in 3rd but was later disqualified after failing a drugs test, meaning Magnus Samuelsson once again finished on the podium.
Following the split of IFSA and WSM, most of the athletes stayed with IFSA. Pudzianowski was the only athlete from the 2004 contest to compete at WSM in 2005. He won the contest with an event to spare ahead of runner up Jesse Marunde, who with third place Dominic Filiou became the first non-Europeans to reach the podium of WSM since O.D. Wilson in 1990.
The 2006 competition ended in dramatic fashion: in the final, Mariusz Pudzianowski started well by coming tied-1st in the Deadlift and winning the Power Stairs easily; but by then winning the last 5 events in a row, Phil Pfister edged out the Pole in the final event, the Atlas stones. Pfister became the first American to win the competition since 1982, and the first American ever to win the competition outside the United States.
Pudzianowski regained his crown in 2007, winning the contest with an event to spare. Fellow Pole Sebastian Wenta claimed 2nd place, with Britain's Terry Hollands rounding out the podium.
In 2008, Derek Poundstone had a large lead over Mariusz Pudzianowski after three events but Pudzianowski tied the Deadlift event for first place and then won the crucial Plane Pull to narrow the gap. Pudzianowski and Poundstone then battled for the title of World's Strongest Man in the last event, the Atlas Stones. Pudzianowski blistered through the event and was able to keep pace with the heavier Poundstone. On the final stone, Pudzianowski was able to capitalize on Poundstone's drop and clinched his fifth title.
In 2009, the long-running IFSA/WSM split had ended, resulting in finally having all of the top strongmen from around the world compete in the same contest. Two-time IFSA World Champion Žydrūnas Savickas returned to the contest after 5 years and claimed his first WSM title, with defending champion Mariusz Pudzianowski coming in second in his final ever WSM contest. Another up and comer Brian Shaw placed third.