Origins

In 1995, David Webster, a Scotsman who later received an OBE for his services to sport and head coordinator of the World's Strongest Man from its inception, and his colleague Dr Douglas Edmunds, seven-times Scottish shot and discus champion and twice world caber champion,^[2] along with representatives from the competitors in strength athletics including Jamie Reeves, Ilkka Kinnunen and Marcel Mostert formed a governing body called the International Federation of Strength Athletes ("IFSA"). IFSA ran its own grand prix events from 1995 to 2001 in cooperation with WSM. IFSA began co-producing the Strongman Super Series events from 2001 to 2004, still in cooperation with WSM. IFSA entered an agreement with World Class Events (WCE), headed by Ulf Bengtsson, to run the Strongman Super Series. The Strongman Super Series was designed to award the annual Strongman World Championship title, but also acted as a qualifying vehicle for the World's Strongest Man contest.

Split with WSM

For almost a decade IFSA and WSM worked in full cooperation, but this changed at the end of the 2004 season when IFSA returned to organizing its own grand prix events and World Strongman Championships from 2005 to 2007. The InvestGroup Ventures' sports rights management arm, InvestGroup Sports Management, invested heavily into IFSA and this led to the creation of IFSA Strongman. The strategy was to acquire most of the international assets and properties relating to the strongman sport. In essence this was a new organization^[3] with some, such as Magnus Samuelsson describing it as "a new company...with the same name as our old federation".^[4] The attempt at dominance was not well received by TWI/WSM and disagreement ensued leading to a split in the sport. When IFSA and WSM split in 2004, the Strongman Super Series sided with TWI/WSM forming a rival federation to the IFSA.^[3] With the WSM being a TWI owned event, IFSA Holdings announced its own World Strongman Championships for 2005, to be held in Quebec, and thus from that point had no involvement in the WSM contest. From this point, IFSA continued to organize the annual IFSA World Strongman Championships and a series of Grand Prix events throughout the year. Between 2005 and 2007 IFSA had their own version of other major events such as a rival IFSA version of Europe's Strongest Man, known as Europe's Strongest Man (IFSA).

Thus, the world of strength athletics became fragmented, with a number of individuals being able to lay claim to be the strongest in the world by virtue of having won mutually exclusive events. Athletes affiliated to IFSA Strongman were not allowed to compete in the World's Strongest Man ("WSM"), which is produced by TWI and thus neither WSM and its associated Strongman Super Series nor the IFSA circuit could claim to have a comprehensive field of the top athletes. Some events did exist that bridged the divide between the major organizations, such as the Arnold Strongman Classic and Fortissimus.

Dissolution of IFSA/birth of SCL

After the 2007 IFSA World Championships in South Korea, news began to circulate of athletes not being paid, and equipment shipping costs not being honored.^[5] IFSA eventually ended up owing $63,000^[5] for shipping their equipment from England to South Korea and finally to Philadelphia. When the money was not paid, the equipment was put up for sale and was eventually purchased by other strongman contest promoters.^[6] The 2007 IFSA World Championships would be the final contest run solely by, and under the banner of, IFSA.

In 2008 IFSA executives Ilkka Kinnunen and Marcel Mostert developed the Strongman Champions League and negotiated with IFSA to use its athletes. However, the dissolution of IFSA meant that since the end of 2007, the Strongman Champions League still operated independent of IFSA. Gradually, the last vestiges of IFSA influence began to diminish which led to the breaking down of barriers between the various concurrent circuits. Strength athletes were able to compete in more than one circuit and did so, with a cross over of athletes between the Giants Live circuit, the Strongman Champions League and the Strongman Super Series being apparent. The 2009 World's Strongest Man was therefore anticipated by the strength athletics world as promising to be "the best one yet"^[7] because the organisers could ensure invites were made to "every top athlete in the world" regardless of their affiliation to any particular strength athletics body.

2005: IFSA Strongman World Championships

Dates: 25 September 2005

Quebec City, Canada

Position	Name	Country	Points
1.	Žydrūnas Savickas		103
2.	Vasyl Virastyuk		96
3.	Mikhail Koklyaev		93.5
4.	Andrus Murumets		86
5.	Raimonds Bergmanis		84.5
6.	Phil Pfister		82.5
7.	Vidas Blekaitis		81.5
8.	Magnus Samuelsson		69
9.	Robert Szczepanski		67
10.	Travis Ortmayer		64.5
11.	Geoff Dolan		54.5
12.	Karl Gillingham		43

2006: IFSA Strongman World Championships

Dates: 24, 25 November 2006

Reykjavik, Iceland

• This was the first year that qualifying heats were used. There were 3 heats, with the top 4 from each heat moving on to the finals.

Position	Name	Country	Points
1.	Žydrūnas Savickas		80.5
2.	Mikhail Koklyaev		78.5
3.	Vasyl Virastyuk		72
4.	Vidas Blekaitis		70
5.	Andrus Murumets		55
6.	Robert Szczepanski		46.5
7.	Benedikt Magnusson		44.5
8.	Oli Thompson		43
9.	Nick Best		38
10.	Travis Ortmayer		35
11.	Saulius Brusokas		33.5
12.	Ervin Katona		20.5

2007: IFSA Strongman World Championships

Dates: 12–15 September 2007

Geumsan, South Korea

• The 2007 competition included 6 qualifying heats, with the top 2 from each heat moving on to the finals.

Position	Name	Country	Points
1.	Vasyl Virastyuk		57.5
2.	Mikhail Koklyaev		52.5
3.	Žydrūnas Savickas		51.5
4.	Derek Poundstone		50.5
5.	Andrus Murumets		46.5
6.	Vidas Blekaitis		41.5
7.	Robert Szczepanski		40
8.	Van Hatfield		32.5
9.	Saulius Brusokas		29.5
10.	Tom McClure		26
11.	Ervin Katona		20.5
12.	Jarno Hams		17.5

1995

Name and Location	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place
Copenhagen, Denmark World's Strongest Viking[8]	Heinz Ollesch	Flemming Rasmussen	Torfi Olaffson
Klaipėda, Lithuania Lithuania Grand Prix[9]	Gary Taylor	Forbes Cowan	Stasys Mecius
Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany Manfred Höberl Classic[10]	Magnus Ver Magnusson	Gary Taylor	Heinz Ollesch
Scandinavia's Strongest Man	Flemming Rasmussen

1996

Name and Location	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place	Date
Copenhagen, Denmark World's Strongest Viking[11]	Flemming Rasmussen	Magnus Ver Magnusson	Torfi Olaffson
Denmark Denmark Grand Prix	Riku Kiri	Magnus Ver Magnusson	Flemming Rasmussen
Klaipėda, Lithuania Lithuania Grand Prix[12]	Riku Kiri	Heinz Ollesch	Magnus Ver Magnusson	7 July 1996
Scandinavia's Strongest Man	Flemming Rasmussen

1997

Name and Location	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place
Meerssen, Netherlands European Open	Riku Kiri	Gerrit Badenhorst	Magnus Ver Magnusson
Copenhagen, Denmark World's Strongest Viking[13]	Flemming Rasmussen	Riku Kiri	Magnus Ver Magnusson
Klaipėda, Lithuania Lithuania Grand Prix[14]	Stasys Mecius	Raimonds Bergmanis	Magnus Ver Magnusson
Scandinavia's Strongest Man	Flemming Rasmussen

1998

Name and Location	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place	Date
Helsinki, Finland Helsinki Grand Prix[15]	Magnus Samuelsson	Riku Kiri	Svend Karlsen	14 March 1998
Klaipėda, Lithuania Lithuania Grand Prix[16]	Jamie Reeves	Raimunds Kencivikius	Wayne Price	1 August 1998
Budapest, Hungary Hungary Grand Prix[17]	Riku Kiri	Flemming Rasmussen	László Fekete	2 August 1998
Arnbruck, Germany Germany Grand Prix[18]	Riku Kiri	Jouko Ahola	Heinz Ollesch	5 September 1998
Faroe Islands Atlantic Giant[19]	Magnus Samuelsson	Riku Kiri	Svend Karlsen

1999

Name and Location	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place	Date
Helsinki, Finland Finland Grand Prix[20]	Jouko Ahola	Sami Heinonen	Janne Virtanen	6 March 1999
Faroe Islands Atlantic Giant[21]	Jouko Ahola	Regin Vagadal	Magnus Samuelsson	16 May 1999
Keszthely. Hungary Hungary Grand Prix[22]	Berend Veneberg	Gerrit Badenhorst	Jouko Ahola	18 July 1999
Hardenberg, Netherlands Holland Grand Prix[23]	Gerrit Badenhorst	Jouko Ahola	Berend Veneberg	24 July 1999
Prague, Czech Republic Czech Grand Prix[24]	Magnus Samuelsson	Jouko Ahola	Joe Onosai	14 August 1999
Iceland Viking of the North[25]	Hugo Girard	Magnus Samuelsson	Janne Virtanen	17 October 1999
Nordic Strongman Championships	Matti Uppa

2000

Name and Location	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place	Date
Helsinki, Finland Finland Grand Prix[26]	Janne Virtanen	Magnus Samuelsson	Svend Karlsen	18 March 2000
Ireland Ireland Grand Prix[27]	Magnus Samuelsson	Janne Virtanen	Svend Karlsen	30 April 2000
Sopot, Poland Poland Grand Prix[28]	Magnus Samuelsson	Janne Virtanen	Jarek Dymek	25 June 2000
Faroe Islands Atlantic Giant[29]	Regin Vagadal	Janne Virtanen	Magnus Samuelsson	2 September 2000
Prague, Czech Republic Czech Grand Prix[30]	Jan Bartl	Svend Karlsen	Martin Muhr	2 September 2000
Bucharest, Romania Romania Grand Prix[31]	Magnus Samuelsson	Janne Virtanen	Rene Minkfitz	16 September 2000
Panyu, China China Grand Prix[32]	Magnus Samuelsson	Hugo Girard	Janne Virtanen	8 October 2000

2001

Name and Location	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place	Date
Sopot, Poland Poland Grand Prix[33]	Jarek Dymek	Janne Virtanen	Svend Karlsen	10 March 2007
Faroe Islands Atlantic Giant[34]	Regin Vágadal	Janne Virtanen	Jarek Dymek	28 July 2007
Kokkola, Finland Strongman World Record Breakers[35]	Svend Karlsen	Wout Zijlstra	Rene Minkwitz	26 August 2007

2002

Name and Location	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place	Date
Szczyrk, Poland Winter Cup International[36]	Janne Virtanen	Jarek Dymek	Hugo Girard	9 February 2002
Vantaa, Finland Finland Grand Prix[37]	Janne Virtanen	Svend Karlsen	Juha-Matti Räsänen	20 April 2002
Istanbul, Turkey Turkey Grand Prix[38]	Janne Virtanen	Wout Zijlstra	Bernd Kerschbaumer	18 May 2002
Mariehamn, Finland Åland Grand Prix[39]	Jorma Paananen	Rene Minkwitz	Harri Simonen	10 August 2002
Imatra, Finland Nordic Championships[40]	Juha-Matti Räsänen	Rene Minkwitz	Anders Johansson	17 August 2002
Panyu, China China Grand Prix[41]	Svend Karlsen	Juha-Matti Räsänen	Žydrūnas Savickas	20 October 2002

2003

Name and Location	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place	Date
Inowrocław, Poland Poland Grand Prix[42]	Jarek Dymek	Robert Szczepański	Raimonds Bergmanis	12 April 2003
Vantaa, Finland Finland Grand Prix[43]	Janne Virtanen	Mariusz Pudzianowski	Juha-Matti Räsänen	17 May 2003
Winnipeg, Canada All Strength Challenge[44]	Eddy Ellwood	Andrus Murumets	Peter Baltus	15 June 2003
Ylitornio, Finland Ylitornio Challenge[45]	Mariusz Pudzianowski	Janne Virtanen	Vidas Blekaitis	28 June 2003
Gdynia, Poland Strongman World Record Breakers[46]	Mariusz Pudzianowski	Jarek Dymek	Magnus Samuelsson	24 August 2003
Sopron, Hungary Hungarian Strongman Challenge[47]	Ervin Katona	Ádám Darázs	Tomi Lotta	15 November 2003

2004

Name and Location	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place	Date
Jūrmala, Latvia Baltic Strongest Man[48]	Raimonds Bergmanis	Žydrūnas Savickas	Vilius Petrauskas	22 May 2004
Turkey Turkey Champions Trophy[49]	Mariusz Pudzianowski	Tomi Lotta	Svend Karlsen	22 May 2004
Doetinchem, Netherlands Holland Champions Trophy[50]	Mariusz Pudzianowski	Svend Karlsen	Žydrūnas Savickas	13 June 2004
Ukraine Ukraine Grand Prix[48]	Vasyl Virastyuk	Magnus Samuelsson	Žydrūnas Savickas	20 June 2004
Šiauliai, Lithuania CEKOL Cup[48]	Žydrūnas Savickas	Vasyl Virastyuk	Tomasz Nowotniak	3 July 2004
Riga, Latvia All Strength Challenge[48]	Mariusz Pudzianowski	Raimonds Bergmanis	Vasyl Virastyuk	18 July 2004
Szeged, Hungary International Gold[51]	Ervin Katona	Saulius Brusokas	Ettiene Smit	11 September 2004

2005

Beginning in 2005, IFSA cut all ties with World's Strongest Man and Strongman Super Series and began hosting their own grand prix events and world championships from 2005 to 2007.

Name and Location	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place	Date
Szeged, Hungary Hungary Grand Prix[52]	Žydrūnas Savickas	Rene Minkwitz	Ettiene Smit	1 May 2005
Dubai, United Arab Emirates Dubai Grand Prix[52]	Tomi Lotta	Robert Szczepański	Andrus Murumets	19 May 2005
Moscow, Russia Russia Grand Prix[52]	Žydrūnas Savickas	Raimonds Bergmanis	Mikhail Koklyaev	6 June 2005
Doetinchem, Netherlands Holland Grand Prix[52]	Tomi Lotta	Jarno Hams	Rene Minkwitz	12 June 2005
Hungary West European Championships[52]	Jarno Hams	Ádám Darázs	Jan Křeháček	25 June 2005
Riga, Latvia European Championships[52]	Žydrūnas Savickas	Tomi Lotta	Andrus Murumets	17 July 2005
Kristiansand, Norway Nordic Championships[52]	Svend Karlsen	Magnus Samuelsson	Juha-Matti Räsänen	6 August 2005
São Paulo, Brazil World Open[53]	Mikhail Koklyaev	Svend Karlsen	Robert Szczepański	20 August 2005
São Paulo, Brazil Pan American Championships[54]	Phil Pfister	Travis Ortmayer	Karl Gillingham	21 August 2005
Šiauliai, Lithuania CEKOL Cup[55]	Žydrūnas Savickas	Vilius Petrauskas	Andrus Murumets	27 August 2005
Denmark Denmark Grand Prix[54]	Rene Minkwitz	Van Hatfield	Juha-Pekka Aitala	20 November 2005

2006

Name and Location	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place	Date
Kyiv, Ukraine Ukrainian Open	Žydrūnas Savickas	Rene Minkwitz	Ettiene Smit	18 April 2006
Dubai, United Arab Emirates Dubai Grand Prix[52]	Žydrūnas Savickas	Geoff Dolan	Andrus Murumets	24 April 2006
Moscow, Russia Russia Grand Prix[52]	Mikhail Koklyaev	Andrus Murumets	Žydrūnas Savickas	14 May 2006
Tulsa, Oklahoma World Strongman Challenge[52]	Žydrūnas Savickas	Derek Poundstone	Jon Andersen	21 May 2006
Salou, Spain Spain Grand Prix[56]	Juha-Pekka Aitala	Simon Sulaiman	Jarno Hams	5 June 2006
Eger, Hungary Hungary Grand Prix[52]	Mikhail Koklyaev	Vasyl Virastyuk	Travis Ortmayer	5 June 2006
Terborg, Netherlands Holland Grand Prix[52]	Žydrūnas Savickas	Jon Andersen	Jarno Hams	10 June 2006
Riga, Latvia Latvia World Cup[52]	Žydrūnas Savickas	Raimonds Bergmanis	Mikhail Koklyaev	18 July 2006
Tornio, Finland Finland Grand Prix[54]	Andrus Murumets	Robert Szczepanski	Steve MacDonald	5 August 2006
Kyiv, Ukraine Ukraine Grand Prix	Vasyl Virastyuk	Vidas Blekaitis	Oleksandr Pekanov	29 December 2006

United Strongman Series

Name and Location	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place	Date
Kyiv, Ukraine USS Kyiv[54]	Sebastian Wenta	Igor Pedan	Viktor Yurchenko	18 April 2006
Limassol, Cyprus USS Cyprus[52]	Travis Ortmayer	Igor Pedan	Raimonds Bergmanis	28 May 2006
Belgrade, Serbia USS Belgrade[52]	Ervin Katona	Geoff Dolan	Sebastian Wenta	20 June 2006
Moscow, Russia USS Moscow[57]	Sebastian Wenta	Igor Pedan	Ervin Katona	1 July 2006
Marijampolė, Lithuania USS Lithuania[54]	Žydrūnas Savickas	Vidas Blekaitis	Igor Pedan	19 August 2006

2007

Name and Location	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place	Date
Riga, Latvia Latvia Grand Prix[52][58]	Andrus Murumets	Vasyl Virastyuk	Vidas Blekaitis	17 March 2007
Ulft, Netherlands Holland Grand Prix[52][59]	Jarno Hams	Ettiene Smit	Georg Ögmundsson	17 June 2007
Sofia, Bulgaria Bulgaria Grand Prix[52]	Robert Szczepanski	Janne Illikainen	Ervin Katona	23 June 2007
Kyiv, Ukraine European Championships[52][60]	Vasyl Virastyuk	Andrus Murumets	Vidas Blekaitis	22 July 2007
Klaipėda, Lithuania Lithuania Grand Prix[52]	Žydrūnas Savickas	Andrus Murumets	Janne Illikainen	28 July 2007
Oulu, Finland Finland Grand Prix[52][61]	Andrus Murumets	Janne Illikainen	Robert Szczepanski	2 September 2007

2008

Name and Location	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place	Date
Riga, Latvia SCL Latvia[62]	Žydrūnas Savickas	Travis Ortmayer	Agris Kazelniks	22 March 2008
Subotica, Serbia SCL Serbia[62]	Žydrūnas Savickas	Ervin Katona	Andrus Murumets	10 May 2008
Varsseveld, Netherlands SCL Holland[62]	Žydrūnas Savickas	Andrus Murumets	Travis Ortmayer	1 June 2008
Sofia, Bulgaria SCL Bulgaria[62]	Andrus Murumets	Žydrūnas Savickas	Ervin Katona	21 June 2008
Vilnius, Lithuania SCL Lithuania[62]	Žydrūnas Savickas	Vidas Blekaitis	Saulius Brusokas	2 August 2008
Constanța, Romania SCL Romania[62]	Žydrūnas Savickas	Ervin Katona	Oleksandr Lashyn	16 August 2008
Kokkola, Finland SCL Finland[62]	Mikhail Koklyaev	Žydrūnas Savickas	Ervin Katona	29 August 2008
Overall placings[62]	Žydrūnas Savickas 130 points	Ervin Katona 72 points	Agris Kazelniks 60 points

Events were planned in the following locations but cancelled: Dubai, Germany and Hungary

British Championships (IFSA)

Year	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place
2005	Mark Felix	Oli Thompson	Andrew Raynes

UK Championship (IFSA)

Year	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place
1997	Stuart Murray	Steve Brooks	Russ Bradley
1999	Glenn Ross	TBC	TBC

IFSA England's Strongest Man

Year	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place
2005	Eddy Ellwood	Mark Felix	Oli Thompson