FLEXONLINE.COM.AU|FLEX 69COURTESY OF POWERLIFTING USA
Since 1977 the presumed
strongest men in the world have
gathered annually to compete
in the World’s Strongest Man
competition (WSM) to determine
who’s No. 1, with similar contests
being held by the International
Federation of Strength
Athletes (IFSA) and at the
Arnold Sports Festivals.
Still, with all the various ways
we’ve devised to determine
who is the strongest of the
strong, it seems we’ve managed
only to create factions, each loyal
to the top athletes in their sport
or organisation of choice.
Powerlifting fans might tell
you that Ed Coan is, pound for
pound, the strongest man
who’s ever lived or that the far
larger Andy Bolton is the overall
strongest. FANS OF THE
WSM COMPETITION MIGHT
POINT TO THREE-TIME WINNER
BILL KAZMAIER or five-time
winner Mariusz Pudzianowski.
All of the men listed above have
a legitimate claim to being history’s
strongest man, but really just one
can claim ultimate strength, andTHROUGHOUT HISTORY, mankind has
been obsessed with physical strength. Since
the days when the legends of Hercules first
took shape, to the ancient Olympic Games
where wrestling matches were used to
determine the strongest man alive, we have
always wanted to name one man above
all others. As the
centuries wore on,
the methods for
determining the
strongest man grew
more sophisticated,
from the advent of
Highland games to
Olympic weightlifting.
we’ve decided who that person is.
To do so we’ve consulted with a
man whose name deserves to be
included in every discussion
regarding strength. Dr Terry Todd
isn’t merely the United States’ first
national powerlifting champion
(in 1964 and ’65), he was also
the first man to total 1600, 1700,
1800 and 1900 pounds. Todd
is also the creator of the Arnold
Strongman Classic, one of the
most renowned strength
historians in the world, and he and
his wife are the directors of the
world’s largest collection of
physical fitness and strength
memorabilia, the Stark Center forPhysical Culture and Sports at the
University of Texas at Austin, US.
We drew upon Todd’s vast
collection and reviewed countless
articles detailing the feats
performed by men of all eras.
We’d like to make it clear
that comparing athletes whose
peaks came a century apart
makes educated speculation
a must. First, there’s the issue
of chemical enhancement,
something obviously not available
to a Louis Uni. Second, Todd
points out that during the late
19th and early 20th centuries,
strength athletes didn’t so much
train as give performances on
an irregular basis. The strength
they displayed for gawking
crowds was raw and untrained
— and it was their performances
that made them stronger, nothing
systematic. In this light, we
attempted to recognise not
just recorded strength but
potential strength as well.
Call it a meta physical leveling
of the playing field.
Without further ado, we
believe this list to be the
most definitive of its kind.