World's Strongest Man

The World's Strongest Man is a strongman competition. Organized by TWI, an IMG Media company, it is broadcast 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 the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles, California; other past sponsors include Tonka, Met-rx, and PartyPoker.com. The event has a number of rival and parallel competitions with which it is sometimes confused, including the Strongman Super Series, the now defunct IFSA Strongman World Championships (run from 2005-2007 after the International Federation of Strength Athletes parted company with WSM in 2004) and Strongman Champions League.

History

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. Dr Douglas Edmunds, seven-times 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.

2000 World's Strongest Man

The 2000 World's Strongest Man was the 23rd edition of World's Strongest Man and was won by Janne Virtanen from Finland. It was his first title after finishing second the previous year. Svend Karlsen from Norway finished second after finishing third the previous year, and 1998 winner Magnus Samuelsson from Sweden finished third. The contest was held in Sun City, South Africa.

Qualifying heats

Qualifying heats in World's Strongest Man involve a series of six events. The field is divided into groups of six competitors with the top two in each of the groups reaching the ten man final. A win in an event gives a competitor 6 points, second place gets 5, and so on (4,3,2,1).

Heat 1

Source

Heat 2

Source

Heat 3

Source

Heat 4

Source

Heat 5

Source

Final results

Source

References

External links

1977 World's Strongest Man

The 1977 World's Strongest Man was the first edition of World's Strongest Man and was won by Bruce Wilhelm from the USA. It was his first title. Bob Young from the USA finished second, and Ken Patera also from the USA third. The contest was held at the Universal Studios, California.

Final results

References

External links

1983 World's Strongest Man

The 1983 World's Strongest Man was the seventh edition of World's Strongest Man and was won by Geoff Capes from the United Kingdom. It was his first title. Jón Páll Sigmarsson from the Iceland finished second, and Simon Wulfse from the Netherlands third. The winner of the three previous competetitions, Bill Kazmaier, was not invited to compete again in this year. The contest was held at Christchurch, New Zealand. The title of the competition, formerly "World's Strongest Men", was changed to the current title for this competition.

Events

There were a total of 8 different events used in the competition: