Top 10 Strongest Men in the World
These dudes are wicked strong. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the men all around the world who’ve proven they’re the strongest around.
Transcript
00:00 "If the Vikings were pulling boats with me, I would by far go down in history as the best Viking boat puller that ever lived."
00:07 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the men all around the world who've proven they are the strongest around.
00:15 "He was one of the people who showed humanity what a noble human machine could do."
00:22 Number 10. Eddie Hall
00:26 This British muscleman completed his first strongman competition in 2007. By 2011, he was placing first in the UK's Strongest Man competition, a title he would go on to win six years in a row.
00:38 That's not the only contest he's impressed at, though.
00:40 "Now there's double figures! This is unbelievable!"
00:44 In 2017, he notably won Britain's Strongest Man as well as the highly coveted World's Strongest Man title.
00:51 The latter event saw him max deadlift 1,042 pounds. He also finished in second place in the Europe's Strongest Man competition that year.
01:00 Hall has since retired from strongman competitions, but you may have seen him making his acting debut in 2023's Expendables 4.
01:08 "This is way fat." "Mm-hmm. Bats are fat, huh?"
01:12 Number 9. Leonid Taranenko
01:15 At the 2021 World Weightlifting Championships, Lasha Talakhatsa lifted 267 kilograms in the clean and jerk.
01:23 This was significant, just breaking the previous record of 266 kilos, a record that had stood since 1988, when the great Soviet Belarusian weightlifter Leonid Taranenko set it.
01:43 But wait, there's a lot more that speaks to Taranenko's strength.
01:46 For instance, he took home a weightlifting gold medal at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow and a silver at the Barcelona Games 12 years later in 1992.
01:56 He's no stranger to medals at the World Weightlifting Championships either, with a bronze, a silver, and two golds to his name.
02:03 Number 8. Andy Bolton
02:11 Born in Yorkshire, England in 1970, Andy Bolton notably has an impressive fifth-place finish at the 2002 Arnold Strongman Classic contest.
02:20 However, he's primarily known as a powerlifter.
02:23 In fact, he has three first-place finishes at the World Powerlifting Championships of 2000, 2001, and 2008.
02:36 And he's probably best known to fans as the first man to ever deadlift 1,000 pounds.
02:41 About a year after he amazed everyone with that feat in 2006, he also set the squat and the World Powerlifting Organization total weight world records.
02:50 Number 7. Hafthor Julius Bjornsson
02:53 He isn't just a mountain of a man. He played a man called "The Mountain" on HBO's Game of Thrones, while he was playing The Mountain on TV.
03:03 He was also mounting an impressive number of Strongman trophies on his mantle.
03:07 Going through the 56 international and national solo first-place finishes of his career would take too long.
03:19 But his accomplishments in 2018 kind of put everything in focus.
03:28 That was when Hafthor became the first man to win the Arnold Strongman Classic, the Europe's Strongest Man, and the World's Strongest Man contests all in the same year.
03:37 He also won the titles of World's Ultimate Strongman and Iceland's Strongest Man. Talk about domination.
03:43 Number 6. Louis Uni
03:56 Also known as "Apollon the Mighty," Louis Uni was born in France in 1862.
04:01 Given the time period, the accounts of his feats of strength are not always easy to confirm. But there is no doubt about his place in history.
04:18 Most any conversation about the Strongest Man ever will come around to Uni. Famous for his grip strength, he performed feats that few others could attempt.
04:41 This included everything from one-handed snatches to an escaping prisoner stage act that saw him bending iron bars at will.
04:48 In 1913, he even put on a show that had him extending his arms to keep two vehicles back, though he was sadly injured in the process.
04:56 Number 5. Brian Shaw
04:58 Imagine winning the World's Strongest Man title and the Arnold Strongman Classic in the same year.
05:04 Someone who doesn't have to imagine such an accomplishment is Brian Shaw because he's done it. Twice.
05:09 When he pulled it off in 2011, it was a first. Four years later, it remained as impressive.
05:15 It's no surprise since if you look at the ranking of most decorated strongmen in 2023, you'll see he sits at an impressive fourth place.
05:29 If you want further proof of his skill, allow us to direct you to an episode of The Strongest Man in history,
05:35 where he took less than 45 seconds to completely dominate a Viking ship weighing in at 60,000 pounds.
05:41 Did we mention it was on an incline?
05:46 Number 4. Paul Anderson
05:49 This man stood atop the proverbial strength mountain in the 50s and 60s.
05:53 He won weightlifting gold medals at the 1955 World Championships and at the Melbourne Olympics in 1956.
06:00 In 1960, he was deemed ineligible to compete at the Olympics. But he wasn't going to let that stop him. Indeed.
06:06 He showed off his might by matching the records set at those games, three times in a row.
06:11 Now, did he really squat 1,200 pounds? There are skeptics to that and some of his other accomplishments.
06:17 Still, greats like Bruce Wilhelm have called him "the strongest of the strong".
06:23 Number 3. Bill Kazmaier
06:25 Back in the 80s, Kazmaier dubbed himself "the strongest man who ever lived" and would pull off amazing accomplishments in order to live up to said claim.
06:44 But Kazmaier isn't some sort of sideshow strong man. He's the real deal and truly one of history's greatest men of strength.
06:51 As of 2023, there have been two men who have won three consecutive World's Strongest Man titles.
06:58 He is one of them. He's also set multiple records, like when he bench-pressed 660 pounds during an international powerlifting federation event.
07:06 He may no longer hold that record, but it doesn't make it any less remarkable.
07:11 "Our many congratulations for the third year in succession declared the World's Strongest Man. What does that mean to you?"
07:16 "Well, it reaffirms my idea that I'm the strongest man who ever lived, and I've already forgotten about it even though it's only two minutes ago. Looking forward to next year."
07:25 Number 2. Mark Henry
07:27 The Arnold Strongman classic is considered by many to be the hardest strongman competition in the world.
07:33 Who won the first ever contest in 2002, you may ask? That would be Mark Henry.
07:38 He excels at the strongman stuff, while also reigning supreme in both power and weightlifting, which took him to the 1992 and 1996 Olympics.
07:47 Sadly, an injury kept him from reaching his full potential on the latter event stage.
07:52 However, his performance at the 1996 U.S. National Weightlifting Championships was one for the history books, as was his 5-lift record.
08:00 "Apparently you're strong enough to twist a spoon, which sounds easy to me. Am I?"
08:04 Henry also joined the WWE, building a Hall of Fame-worthy career, proving he is not a one-trick pony.
08:11 "Oh my gosh!" "It's your turn." "It's not just twisted, it's like twisted." "Yeah, it's like... okay."
08:18 Before we unveil our top pick, here are some honorable mentions.
08:22 Vasil Vyrastyuk
08:24 He won Ukraine's Strongest Man six times and became a Member of Parliament in 2021.
08:29 "A massive amount of weight, as John was saying earlier. Look at the distance he's put between himself and Zavikas. And Vyrastyuk has finished!"
08:37 Magnus Vermagnusson
08:39 He won four World's Strongest Man golds in the 90s, three of which were in a row.
08:44 "Perfect technique with the legs first and then the back. He's got it again."
08:50 Mariusz Pudzianowski
08:52 His five World's Strongest Man and six Europe's Strongest Man wins speak for themselves.
08:57 "Look at the legs on that man. He's just like a prime racehorse, isn't he? Bristling with muscle."
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09:20 Number 1. Zydrunas Zavickas
09:24 In 1989, a teenage Zydrunas Zavickas watched a strongman competition and decided he wanted to do that.
09:31 It only took a few years before he began competing and building what would become perhaps the greatest strongman career of all time.
09:38 "The clock is ticking away still. It's gonna be close. So, so close. Just under."
09:44 "We don't have time to get into every single world record he set, but we will say there are more than 70 of them.
09:50 And if you want to talk about competitions, all you have to do is look at his four World's Strongest Man titles or his eight Arnold Strongman Classic wins.
09:58 Let's also not forget his multiple first-place finishes in the Strongman Champions League competition circuit.
10:04 There's no heavy lifting required to leave us a comment, so go ahead and let us know what you think below.
10:09 "That was real close to a thousand pounds. I'll be doing that in the near future."
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10:21 [Music]