Throughout 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.
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 is No. 1, with similar contests being held by the International Federation of Strength Athletes (IFSA) and at the Arnold Sports Festival where Bruce Wilhelm emerged as the world first strongest man.
But over the years there has been arguments about who the strongest of the strong is, to find an answer to this problem one must consult Dr. Terry Todd who isn’t merely the United States’ first national powerlifting champion (in 1964 and ’65), he was also the first man to total 1,600, 1,700, 1,800, and 1,900 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 for Physical Culture and Sports at the University of Texas at Austin. We drew upon Todd’s vast collection and reviewed countless articles detailing the feats performed by men of all eras.
Who said that the men of the old era deserves the title of the strongest of the strong due to the fact that the strength they displayed for gawking crowds was raw and untrained and it was their performances that made them stronger, nothing systematic as compared to their future counterparts. In this light, we attempted to recognize not just recorded strength but potential strength as well. Call it a metaphysical leveling of the playing field which has stunned the world and the world has remained stunned ever since by these men.
So amazed that there are thousands of strongman competitions around the world today and in different ways men have been proving themselves worthy to be called NO: 1 strongest man in of these competitions.
However the West African community is lacking behind and this form of sport has thus far been unexplored, despite the now teeming population of body builders and strong man enthusiasts. It is with this in mind that “THE POWERMAN SERIES” a strongman competition was conceptualized by MediaVision Limited – Nigeria’s Leading Sports Marketing Company – will fill the void in the strongman competition space.
The Powerman Series will hold in 2016 with three (3) scheduled events the first of which will take place in February.
Details of the competition will soon be made public.
Fela is the Co-founder of MediaVision Limited .
