Top 5 : Srongest Man in the World
Wow, we just think how they can be like that? Wow, how they make big muscles? Okay just stay on my page and see who are the Top 5 Strongest Man in the world ..
To many the record holding 5-time World’s Strongest Man will seem like the obvious choice. On the other hand some Strongman aficionados will roll their eyes. As controversial as it may be, some will argue that Pudzianowski was the beneficiary of the split in the sport which took place in 2005 and resulted in athletes such as Vasy Virastyuk and Zydrunas Savickas competing for the IFSA promotion. Personally I don’t see it this way. At only 23 years of age Mariusz came 4th in his 2000 WSM debut and would return 2 years later to take his first title in Kuala Lumpur. Let’s be honest four of his five victories were total walkovers, including two easy defeats of an older and more experienced Savickas. We must also remember he was a very close runner up on two occasions. Pudzianowski was also renowned for his all round versatility; it was a shock if he ever placed outside the top 3 in any event. Furthermore, by 2009 Pudzianowski was recovering from serious injury, was in heavy training for his MMA debut and had only competed in two local warm-up events in his native Poland in which he was even defeated by athletes not fit to lace his lifting shoes. Savickas, who had now returned to the fold, was on the other hand touted by many to be the world’s strongest man in all but title. Even so, the five time champion would push Savickas all the way, narrowly missing out on the Atlas Stones. Much like Rocky Balboa, his defeat may have been his greatest victory and proof that the most decorated WSM competitor of all time is also the greatest Strongman of the modern era.
The four time World’s Strongest Man from Iceland takes the runner up spot on this list because he was dominant in an era when the sport was becoming increasingly competitive and the ‘Strongman’ had become an athlete in his own right. Challengers such as Manfred Hoeberl, Gary Taylor, Ted Van Der Parre and Gerrit Badenhorst pushed Ver Magnusson all the way and even overcame him on two occasions but like all warriors the Icelander fought back. Some would argue that he also retired in his prime, possibly out of respect for fellow four-time champion and countryman, Jon Pall Sigmarsson. Arguably the first of the modern breed of Strongmen and the second greatest of all time.
3) Jon Pall Sigmarsson
4) Zydrunas Savickas
Some will consider that ‘Big Z’ should be higher up the list. A two time World’s Strongest Man, three time runner up, six time Arnold Classic Strongman winner and the dominant player if IFSA during his self imposed exile from the World’s Strongest Man competition. He has also achieved these feats in arguably the most competitive era in the history of the sport. The difficulty comes in terms of how you define the sport of Strongman. Savickas has tended to fare better in the competitions which favour relatively static, incredibly heavy events over more fitness and mobility orientated ones; hence he has, for example, dominated the, stage based, Arnold Classic. If this is how you define the sport of Strongman then perhaps Zydrunas Savickas should be number one on this list but the World’s Strongest Man competition generally has not defined the sport in this way. If, however, he can add to his current brace of WSM titles then Savickas may well end up as the greatest Strongman of all time.
5) Bill Kazmaier
1) Mariusz Pudzianowski
To many the record holding 5-time World’s Strongest Man will seem like the obvious choice. On the other hand some Strongman aficionados will roll their eyes. As controversial as it may be, some will argue that Pudzianowski was the beneficiary of the split in the sport which took place in 2005 and resulted in athletes such as Vasy Virastyuk and Zydrunas Savickas competing for the IFSA promotion. Personally I don’t see it this way. At only 23 years of age Mariusz came 4th in his 2000 WSM debut and would return 2 years later to take his first title in Kuala Lumpur. Let’s be honest four of his five victories were total walkovers, including two easy defeats of an older and more experienced Savickas. We must also remember he was a very close runner up on two occasions. Pudzianowski was also renowned for his all round versatility; it was a shock if he ever placed outside the top 3 in any event. Furthermore, by 2009 Pudzianowski was recovering from serious injury, was in heavy training for his MMA debut and had only competed in two local warm-up events in his native Poland in which he was even defeated by athletes not fit to lace his lifting shoes. Savickas, who had now returned to the fold, was on the other hand touted by many to be the world’s strongest man in all but title. Even so, the five time champion would push Savickas all the way, narrowly missing out on the Atlas Stones. Much like Rocky Balboa, his defeat may have been his greatest victory and proof that the most decorated WSM competitor of all time is also the greatest Strongman of the modern era.
2) Magnus Ver Magnusson
3) Jon Pall Sigmarsson
Sigmarsson takes third place on the list as much for his character and what he did for the profile of the sport as for his phenomenal achievements. Whilst he generally stood head and shoulders above almost all of his fellow competitors almost all the time, it is only fair to point out that the depth of quality in his era was not what it has been in the last ten or even twenty years. JPS was, however, possibly the one competitor from his era whom, with modern training methods, would still be highly competitive, perhaps even dominant, today. When others were struggling with the Atlas/McGlashan stones on their WSM debut, Jon Pall tore through them with the proficiency of a modern Strongman. Both as a showman and an athlete he was truly ahead of his time. With Jon Pall Sigmarsson there may be no World’s Strongest Man as we know it today.
4) Zydrunas Savickas
Some will consider that ‘Big Z’ should be higher up the list. A two time World’s Strongest Man, three time runner up, six time Arnold Classic Strongman winner and the dominant player if IFSA during his self imposed exile from the World’s Strongest Man competition. He has also achieved these feats in arguably the most competitive era in the history of the sport. The difficulty comes in terms of how you define the sport of Strongman. Savickas has tended to fare better in the competitions which favour relatively static, incredibly heavy events over more fitness and mobility orientated ones; hence he has, for example, dominated the, stage based, Arnold Classic. If this is how you define the sport of Strongman then perhaps Zydrunas Savickas should be number one on this list but the World’s Strongest Man competition generally has not defined the sport in this way. If, however, he can add to his current brace of WSM titles then Savickas may well end up as the greatest Strongman of all time.
5) Bill Kazmaier
During his prime, Kaz gave himself the title of ‘The strongest man who ever lived,’ and to that point in history he may well have been correct. Possibly only the legendary, brutally strong and highly versatile Paul Anderson might have been able to challenge Kaz to that title. In his three WSM victories (’80,’81 and ’82) he absolutely dominated and those three years alone would earn him an all time top 5 placing. There are however two key factors that prevent the three time champion from placing higher, namely his self imposed four year exile from World’s Strongest Man and the lack of competition in his era. It is very difficult to know whether his WSM comeback defeats in ’88 and ’89 were the result of age simply catching up with ‘The strongest man who ever lived’ or if, in fact, they were the first times he had come up against real competition. That said, do yourself an favour and watch the ’80,’81 and ’82 finals and see just how dominant Kaz was in his prime. He was truly awesome.
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