History of the World’s Strongest Man

The World’s Strongest Man competition is a well- known event in strength athletics. It was created in 1977 and was organised by TWI, a media company. It is televised yearly at the end of December. For almost 30 years, the strongest men across the continent joined together in a chain of amazing and unique tests of strength, aiming to be recognised as the World's Strongest Man (WSM).

In California, Bruce Wilhelm, a former Olympic Weightlifter champion, became the first athlete to win the World's Strongest Man competition. Americans dominated the event, as Don Reinhoudt won the following year. Bill Kazmaier is also considered one of the grand talents in the WSM sport’s history. He won the championship for three successive years, from 1980 through 1982.

In 1983, Geoff Capes of England became the first non-American World's Strongest Man. Jon-Pall Sigmarsson of Iceland won four championships in the 1980s. During the 1990’s, Magnus Ver Magnusson dominated his athletic strength. Known as the first contemporary athlete, Ver Magnusson competed the four titles of his Icelandic man, Sigmarsson, winning for three consecutive years from 1994 to 1996.

Scandinavia domination continued in the 1990s. Finland's Jouko Ahola won a couple of championships, in 1997 and 1999, while Sweden’s Magnus Sammuelsson, Norway's Svend Karlsen and Finland's Janne Virtanen each won a title on their own.

Nowadays, the championship has undoubtedly shifted to Eastern European. Mariusz Pudzianowski won in 2002 and 2003 before he was defeated by the Ukrainian Vasyl Virastyuk in 2004. Nevertheless, the Polish strongman regained the title in 2005, making him the fourth man to win at least three championships.