NEWS
Ortmayer : Natural born stoneman
Koklyaev : A master degree in strength
Sebastian Wenta : All-Around strongman
Andrus Murumets : The Estonian PowerMan
Louis-Philippe Jean :Heart of a lion
Terry Holland: To be or not to be the strongest
Arild Haugen: Viking Power on the rise
Randall J. Strossen: Man with an Ironmind
Stefan Sölvi Pétursson: Keeping the Tradition Alive
Zydrunas Savickas: World Records Breaker
Ervin Katona: A powerhouse from Serbia
Agreement between Fortissimus & ASC
Agreement between Fortissimus & AussiPower
Agreement between Fortissimus & SCL
POLSKI MOCARZU
«Polski mocarzu! Polski mocarzu!» The two words sound like a war cry everytime you hear them coming out of Mariusz Pudzianowski's mouth, the 4-time winner of the World Strongest Man's title. In fact, the words, meaning: «Polish power», are deeply rooted in Poland's history of one sport of strength: weightlifting.
Poland is a country of some 40 millions people, homeland of Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II) and of Lech Walesa (former president of Solidarnosk and former president of the country). And it has one glorious past in weightlifting, the only sport of strength in Olympic Games.
Between 1896 and 1988, Poland won 22 olympic medals in weightlifting, fourth-ranked nation, bar none. Over a century of World championships (1891-1991), Poland won 214 medals, third behind the former USSR and Bulgaria.
Some names? Waldemar Baszanowski, Ireneusz Palinski, Zygmunt Smalcerg, Norbert Ozimek, Anton Pietruszek. Between 1960 and 1972, Poland's weightlifting established 70 world records.
Of all these famous lifters, one name stands out: that of Waldemar Baszanowski. Between 1962 and 1972, the lightweight (148,5 lbs/67,5 kg), had set 24 world records, 8 at the snatch, 7 at the clean and jerk, and 9 for the best total of the three lifts (press, snatch and clean and jerk). He won two gold medals, one at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and one at the 1968 Mexico Olympics. Many observers consider Baszanowski as the best weightlifter of the history of the sport, pound for pound. The first man to snatch double body weight ans who almost tripled bodyweight in the clean and jerk.
But talking about «Polish power», who did not hear about Krzysztof Wielicki? In 2005, he became the fifth human ever to climb all 14 summits over 8000 m on the planet, including Mount Everest, the Dhaulagiri, the Lhotse and the Nanga Parbat. Nothing that since 1980, eight out of the 14 summits have all been climbed in winter by Polish climbers. In the winter of 2009, Wielicki will attempt the K2, second highest on the planet. Never done yet. (documented by Gabriel Béland, La Presse).
If Mariusz Pudzianowski makes it five at the World Strongest Man's contest, it will be Polski mocarzu forever!
