Vasyl Virastyuk wins title of "world's strongest man" (11/21/04)

Vasyl Virastyuk wins title of "world's strongest man"

by Tetyana Matychak

KYIV - Kyivan Vasyl Virastyuk, who hails from Ivano-Frankivsk, claimed the title of "world's strongest man" at the World Strongman Championship in the Bahamas on October 3.

Lithuanian Zhedrunas Savitskas took second place as he did last year, while Marius Pudzyanovski, world champion for the last two years, took the third spot in which Virastyuk finished last year.

"This victory was not a surprise," Virastyuk said during a press conference on October 8 in Kyiv.

Perhaps it shouldn't have been because, as Virastyuk explained, the founder and main organizer of the World Strongman Championship, Scotsman Douglas Edmunds, two years ago foretold that Virastyuk would become the world's strongest man. And his prediction was specific: it would happen in 2004.

However, the steps that got him there were not quite as simple. His success was preceded by years of training - nine times a week as Virastyuk explained - and included extensive weightlifting, as well as other exercises to develop power, agility and coordination in a sport that, unlike power lifting, requires not only strength but also quickness and the ability to use all the muscles of the body in executing the most outlandish requirements.

Virastyuk has pulled train cars and diesel semi-trailers while taking part in all kinds of contests including the Scottish Highlander Games and Ukrainian Bohatyr Festivals. Before he became a full-time strongman he had been a shot-putter with Olympic aspirations.

"I did everything I could imagine," admitted the strongest man in the world. "I did it with pleasure."

Each strongman competition includes more than 40 different power exercises, which is one reason the designation of world's strongest man comes from these competitions and not from power lifting championships. It requires extensive preparation to perform a variety of physical tests, which change with each contest. While the athletes generally know what to expect, this year they were given a surprise when wrestling became a new event, unexpectedly added to the games in the Bahamas.

It should have been more specifically named Sumo wrestling, inasmuch as the two opponents were required to push their competitors out of a ring imposed around them at a distance of 30 meters. In a showdown that foreshadowed the final results of the championship, Virastyuk applied elements of judo to throw the reigning champion Pudzyanovski out of the ring in the last two tests of the best-of-three event.

Among the new records that the 30-year-old Virastyuk established during the championship in the Bahamas was one in which he carried two suitcases weighing 363 pounds each a distance of 30 meters in the fastest time. He also carried 924 pounds of dead weight attached to a yoke placed on his neck and shoulders a distance of 35 meters (about 40 yards), which is the achievement of which Virastyuk is most proud.

The world's strongest man, who is married and has a 2-year-old son, Adam, said that he prepares for competition with a stringent training schedule, but that his diet is not unusual other than that he consumes many more calories than the average person.

Virastyuk received his championship trophy in the Bahamas from California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a former actor and a legend among weight training and body-building enthusiasts who held the title of Mr. Universe in the 1970s. Virastyuk said that Gov. Schwarzenegger invited him to take part in next year's 30th annual Arnold Classic, a gathering of the world's strongest men in an unofficial competition that the former Mr. Universe sponsors. Other than that, Virastyuk said his plans for the future are quite straightforward.

"The next hurdle, which would be the fulfillment of another dream, is to retain the strongman title three years running. In any case, I will not stop with this year's results," he underscored.

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