Magnús Ver Magnusson, ICE – Strongman
(born 22 April 1963) is an Icelandic former powerlifter and strongman competitor. He won the title of World’s Strongest Man four times (1991, 1994, 1995, and 1996). Magnús competed in his first strongman contest in 1985, finishing third in the Iceland’s Strongest Man competition won by Jón Páll Sigmarsson. He decided to focus solely on strongman competition after he won the 1991 World’s Strongest Man contest.
His strongman victories include the 1989 Pure Strength contest in Scotland, the 1991 and 1993 International Power Challenge, the 1992 Scandinavian Strongest Man (Finland), the 1992 Nordic Strongest Man (Denmark), the 1994 Europe’s Strongest Man, the 1995 World Muscle Power Championship, and the 1995 and 1997 Viking Challenge.
In addition to his four World’s Strongest Man titles, he was also runner-up in 1992 and 1993. He has also won the Iceland’s strongest man competition many times and the West coast Viking (Vestfjarðavíkingurinn) of Iceland nine times, he is considered to be one of the first modern strongman competitors, and is regarded by many to be one of the best strongmen of all time. He carried Jón Páll’s formula of being athletic for the dynamic tests of strength and having tremendous static strength to out lift some of the best Powerlifters. He was able to easily out deadlift the favoured O.D Wilson by 40 kg in 1991 and out squatted the world record holder in the squat, Gerrit Badenhorst, in 1995. After Magnus squatted 437.5 kg , Badenhorst commented that he had previously underestimated Magnus’ pure strength and that Magnus’ squat was the greatest squat he had ever seen from someone of his bodyweight.
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