CWSA's Top 5 Biggest Upsets in World's Strongest Man History

World's Strongest Man is coming early this year. We're now less than a week away from the start of the 2014 competition and in celebration I've put my many hours of watching all the previous years contests to good use. In celebration, here is the first CWSA's Top 5 WSM lists.


CWSA's Top 5 Biggest Upsets in World's Strongest Man History

5) Magnus ver Magnusson can't hold on to beat Ted van der Parre in 1992.
As he recounted in the "30 Years of Pain" TV Special, Magnus ver Magnusson had a narrow lead going into the final event, the Hussafel Stone, at WSM 1992 in his native Iceland. ver Magnusson picked the stone up too high and couldn't see. When he stopped to readjust, the stone dropped from his hands. Before the drop Magnus looked like he could have gone on forever, van der Parre could barely hang on to it. Ted did manage to struggle his way to just past ver Magnusson's mark and the title.

4) Lars Hedlund's certain victory is taken away by Jon Kolb in 1979.
For all three of the first WSMs, the final event was a tug-of-war. In 1978 it was a showdown between leader Don Reinhoudt and reigning champion Bruce Wilhelm. Don brought Bruce right to the edge but a misstep cost him and he had the tables turned on him and lost the title. The next year, it was a close race with Don Reinhoudt out front of a young Bill Kazmaier and Lars Hedlund. Fourth place going into the tug-of-war was Jon Kolb, an offensive lineman for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He weighed about 260lbs, O-Linemen were much smaller in those days, and was well outweighed by the other three men. Kolb beat Kazmaier and Hedlund beat Reinhoudt. All Hedlund needed to do was beat Kolb and the title was his. If he lost, Reinhoudt was the champion. He lost.

3) ver Magnusson, Kiri, and Badenhorst all fail to qualify for the finals in 1997.
At WSM 1996 were ver Magnusson 1st, Kiri 2nd, and Badenhorst 3rd. This was the fourth year they'd run a qualifying group system and it had already once produced an unexpected exit when Gary Taylor failed to make the finals in 1994, the year after he had won. This was worse. All three of the podium finishers, including 4-time champion ver Magnusson were shut down in their qualifying groups. This opened the way for first time competitor Jouko Ahola to pull a minor upset of his own when Flemming Rasmussen fell apart in the Deadlift and become champion.

2) Phil Pfister relentlessly runs down Marius Pudzianowski in 2006.
Have you ever had one of those days when almost everything's going right? Marius Pudzianowski was having one of those competitions in 2006. He shared the win in the Deadlift and had it all to himself in the Power Stairs but then Phil Pfister turned on an there was no stopping him. Phil Pfister won 5, that's right 5, events in a row to win the title. Marius did all he could to hold on, despite a blip in the Fingals Fingers he stayed ahead of Pfister all the way until the Atlas Stone finally. Pudzianowski even led after the 4th stone. Pfister surged ahead at the last second and locked in his last stone an instant before Pudzianowski could his.

1) O.D. Wilson was robbed in 1990.
Everyone knows Jon Pall Sigmarrsson was an amazing champion. So it's not easy to say he didn't deserve one of this championships. In 1990 the american O.D. Wilson dominated the field and came into the final event with a 5.5 point lead. That last event sunk him. Looking more like "CrossFit, the Early Years" than a WSM event, the competitors had to take 100kg of bricks on their back and run them 200m around a track. The massive O.D. Wilson faded fast on the run and Sigmarsson cruised around to victory. O.D. Wilson lost by 0.5 points overall. O.D. is considered by many to the strongest man never to win the title.