Strength athletics in Iceland

Strength athletics in Iceland refers to the participation of Icelandic competitors and holding national strongman events. The sport's roots have a long and ancient history going back many centuries with the legends of Orm Storolfsson and Grettir Ásmundarson to the 19th century traditional strongmen including Snorri Björnsson, Brynjólfur Eggertsson and Gunnar Salómonsson; before the televisation of modern strongman competitions in the late 1970s.

Iceland has held a preeminent position as a nation due to the enormous success of its competitors on the international stage, who between them have won Nine World's Strongest Man titles and numerous other international strongman competitions, and is often regarded as 'the strongest nation of the world'.

History
The origin of Icelanders testing each other through feats and tests of strength predates the introduction of strength athletics and in terms of strength based sports there had been a number of noted powerlifters and weightlifters during the twentieth century. However, in the era of strongman competition Iceland has a record that belies the size of the nation's population having won 9 World's Strongest Man titles, second only to the USA who have won 12 titles. Before Iceland had its own national competition, it already had men competing on the international circuit. In 1983, the young powerlifter and bodybuilder, Jón Páll Sigmarsson entered the 1983 World's Strongest Man competition and was only beaten into second place by the experienced Geoff Capes. Sigmarsson went on to win the competition the following year and in total won the World's Strongest Man four times, and became the first man to win the title 4 times. Sigmarsson was also a six times World Muscle Power champion, 2 times Europe's Strongest Man and winner of the Pure Strength title. His contemporary, and good friend Hjalti Árnason, was also competing at this time and as well as podium finishes in World Muscle Power and World Strongman Challenge, he won the highly regarded Le Defi Mark Ten International competition. Magnús Ver Magnússon followed in their footsteps and emulated Sigmarsson's four World's Strongest Man titles, becoming the second man to win the title 4 times. He also won World Strongman Challenge, Europe's Strongest Man and European Hercules competitions. Ver Magnússon and Árnason also won the 1989 Pure Strength team competition. There have also been several other highly acclaimed Icelandic competitors in the top international events including Andrés Guðmundsson, Benedikt Magnússon, Torfi Ólafsson and most notably Stefán Sölvi Pétursson who achieved fourth-place in the 2010 World's Strongest Man competition. The next entire decade of Icelandic Strongman competitions was dominated by Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson who won the main National title 10 consecutive times in addition to winning several other national competitions multiple times and also winning 9 Giants Live tours including the Europe's Strongest Man 5 times, 8 Strongman Champions League titles, the Arnold Strongman Classic 3 consecutive times, the World's Strongest Man and the World's Ultimate Strongman becoming the most decorated Icelandic Strongman of All time.

National Competitions
Since 1985, Iceland has had its own national competition, Iceland's Strongest Man. There have also been three other major titles contested in Iceland, including Strongest Man in Iceland, Iceland's Strongest Man (IFSA) and Iceland's Strongest Viking; in addition to Westfjord's Viking, Grundarfjord Viking, Highland Viking, Eastfjord Strongman Championships and Thor's Powerlifting Challenge.

Iceland’s Strongest Man
In 1985, the very first Iceland's Strongest Man contest was held and it was not for the faint-hearted. Three of the six competitors ended up in hospital. Jón Páll won the competition while Hjalti Árnason emerged second and Magnús Ver third. Thus, in the very first contest the podium finishers would between them go on to win the World's Strongest Man eight times, the World Muscle Power Classic seven times, the World Strongman Challenge, Le Defi Mark Ten International and numerous powerlifting titles including the super-heavyweight IPF World Powerlifting Championships. The contest's profile was immediately internationally renowned and it eventually became an open competition, although if a non-Icelander wins, the title of Iceland's Strongest Man defers to the highest placed Icelander. This has only happened on 2 occasions when the legendary Bill Kazmaier of the United States and Regin Vagadal of the Faroe Islands won. Tom Stoltman, Terry Hollands and Adrian Rollinson of the United Kingdom and Don Pope of the USA have all placed second. Luke Stoltman of the United Kingdom has placed third.

Being held for 39 consecutive years since its inception in 1985, Iceland's Strongest Man is the oldest continuously held strongman competition in the world. It has been won by 11 Icelanders and 7 of them went on to become multiple winners. With 10 consecutive titles from 2011 to 2020 Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson holds the record for the most number of wins while Magnús Ver Magnússon and Jón Páll Sigmarsson have 7 and 5 wins respectively. At present, the competition is organized by Hjalti Árnason.

Strongest Man in Iceland
This contest is organized by Magnús Ver Magnússon, and is held in different locations throughout Iceland. In the past, it has been held in Grindavík, Sudureyri, Grafarvogur and Hafnarfjördur.

Iceland's Strongest Man (IFSA)
The IFSA organised the Iceland's Strongest Man competition for a number of years before 2005. However, when the IFSA disassociated from the World's Strongest Man competition, Iceland's Strongest Man remained the official qualifier with no IFSA involvement. The IFSA did continue to promote their own version until their financial demise at the end of 2008.

Iceland's Strongest Viking
This contest dates back to 1992 however, in some years the results of this contest have been combined with those of Iceland's Strongest Man in order to ascertain who qualifies for the World's Strongest Man.

Other competitions

 * Westfjord's Viking (Vestfjarðarvíkingin)
 * Grundarfjord Viking (Grundarfjarðartröllið)
 * Highland Viking (Upsveitarvíkingin)
 * Eastfjord Strongman Championships (Austfjarðartröllið)
 * Thor's Powerlifting Challenge

Iceland's Strongest Woman
Iceland's Strongest Woman has been held since 1995 through different organizers, but from 2019 onwards Sigfús Fossdal took over and holds the competition annually in Akureyri.

Nordic Strongman Championships
Nordic Strongman Championships consists of athletes from Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark.


 * In 2005, the competition was held under IFSA in Kristiansand, and in 2012 and 2013 in Harstad, Norway under Giants Live.

Jón Páll Sigmarsson Classic
The competition was organized by Hjalti Árnason to commemorate Jón Páll Sigmarsson, and 3 tournaments were held from 2010 to 2012 with the participation of the top athletes of the world.

Magnús Ver Magnússon Strongman Classic
The competition is noted for its vintage events and is held annually outdoors during winter season.