Who is the strongest man in the world?

(‘My Dad’ aside, obviously).

World’s Strongest Man is ace. A January televisual institution that gets us through a dark time of the year.

However, watching this year I wondered what had happened to some of the athletes. For a few years, it always seemed to be Pudzianowski of Poland, Zydrunas Savickas of Lithuania and Vasil Virastyuk of the Ukraine who were battling for podium places. Pudzianowski and Virastyuk got the victories but Savickas was perhaps the most consistent with three second places in consecutive years, two to Pudzianowski and one to Virastyuk (with Pudzianowski in third until he was disqualified for failing a drug test).

Pudzianowski’s still around but where are the other two? A quick bit of internet research reveals that, like with the darts, strongman has split into two rival federations: the Met–Rx event and the rival IFSA (International Federation of Strength Athletes).

The parallel with the darts perhaps goes deeper. While one federation gets all the TV coverage (the Met–Rx), arguably the world’s best are to be found in the other federation. Many say that Savickas, currently IFSA World Champion, is in fact the strongest man in the world at the moment, as he holds several records for overhead lifts and has won the Arnold Classic Strongman competition for the last four years, finishing ahead of Pudzianowski.

Unify strongman, I say, and let’s see who really is the strongest man in the world!

Labels: sport, TV, WSM