The International Federation of Strength Athletes (IFSA or IFSA Strongman) was an international governing body for
strongman
In the 19th century, the term strongman referred to an exhibitor of strength or similar circus performers who performed feats of strength. More recently, strength athletics, also known as strongman competitions, have grown in popularity. Thes ...
competition. IFSA operated from 1995-2007 and was based in
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
,
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
.
History
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
The World's Strongest Man is an international Strongman competition held every year. Organized by American event management company IMG, a subsidiary of Endeavor, it is broadcast in the US during summers and in the UK around the end of Decem ...
from its inception, and his colleague Dr
Douglas Edmunds
Dr. Douglas Morris Edmunds Ph.D. (29 May 194430 October 2020) was a Scottish Highland Games competitor and strongman. Known as the "Godfather of Strongman", he was a two-time world champion of the caber toss and co-founded and acted as referee ...
, seven-times Scottish shot and discus champion and twice world caber champion, along with representatives from the competitors in
strength athletics
Strength athletics, also known as Strongman competitions, is a sport which tests competitors' strength in a variety of non-traditional ways. Some of the disciplines are similar to those in powerlifting and some powerlifters have also successfully ...
including
Jamie Reeves
Jamie Reeves (born 3 May 1962)David Webster, ''Sons of Samson Volume 2 Profiles'', page 103 (Ironmind Enterprises), is a British former coal miner, strongman and professional wrestler. As a strongman, he won the 1989 World's Strongest Man, wa ...
,
Ilkka Kinnunen Ilkka may refer to:
* Ilkka (given name), Finnish given name
* ''Ilkka'' (newspaper), Finnish newspaper
{{disamb ...
and
Marcel Mostert formed a governing body called the International Federation of Strength Athletes ("IFSA"). IFSA ran its own grand prix events from 1995-2001 in cooperation with WSM. IFSA began co-producing the
Strongman Super Series events from 2001-2004, 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
The World's Strongest Man is an international Strongman competition held every year. Organized by American event management company IMG, a subsidiary of Endeavor, it is broadcast in the US during summers and in the UK around the end of Decem ...
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 2005-2007. 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
[''IFSA, WCE, TWI, WSM, ESPN: Who's On First and How Do I Get To World's Strongest Man?'', by Randall J. Strossen, IronMind, Thursday, February 10, 2005](_blank)
/ref> with some, such as Magnus Samuelsson
Magnus Samuelsson (born December 21, 1969), is a Swedish actor, former strongman and winner of the 1998 World's Strongest Man contest in Morocco. He has also made it to the World's Strongest Man podium 5 times and the finals 10 times and is rega ...
describing it as "a new company...with the same name as our old federation". 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. With the WSM being a TWI owned event, IFSA Holdings announced its own World Strongman Championships for 2005, to be held in Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
, 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
Europe's Strongest Man is an annual strength athletics competition which began in 1980. The event is held in various locations throughout Europe, and features exclusively European strongman competitors. Mariusz Pudzianowski holds the record for m ...
, 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
The World's Strongest Man is an international Strongman competition held every year. Organized by American event management company IMG, a subsidiary of Endeavor, it is broadcast in the US during summers and in the UK around the end of Decem ...
("WSM"), which is produced by TWI
Twi () is a dialect of the Akan language spoken in southern and central Ghana by several million people, mainly of the Akan people, the largest of the seventeen major ethnic groups in Ghana. Twi has about 17-18 million speakers in total, includ ...
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
The Arnold Strongman Classic is an annual competition featuring strength athletes from all over the world, determining who is the Strongest Man in the World. Created by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jim Lorimer and Terry Todd, it is an offshoot of the A ...
and Fortissimus
The Fortissimus is a defunct event in strength athletics. The name means "the mightiest" and was a multi-event challenge at the end of which the winner is crowned as the "Strongest Man on Earth". It was set up to bring together the strongest compe ...
.
Dissolution of IFSA/birth of SCL
After the 2007 IFSA World Championships in South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
, news began to circulate of athletes not being paid, and equipment shipping costs not being honored.[ ] IFSA eventually ended up owing $63,000 for shipping their equipment from England to South Korea and finally to Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
. When the money was not paid, the equipment was put up for sale and was eventually purchased by other strongman contest promoters. 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
The Strongman Champions League is a strongman competition circuit, with several Grand Prix events throughout the year and the Strongman Champions League overall champion title going to the overall winner at the end of the season. The competit ...
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
Giants Live was created in 2009 as the official Tour that qualifies strongmen to compete in the annual World's Strongest Man contest. At each Grand Prix, up to twelve international strongmen come together and compete over six events. The top three ...
circuit, the Strongman Champions League
The Strongman Champions League is a strongman competition circuit, with several Grand Prix events throughout the year and the Strongman Champions League overall champion title going to the overall winner at the end of the season. The competit ...
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"'' ''World’s Strongest Man 2009: More on the Competitors'', Ironmind, Thursday, August 6, 2009 , by Randall J. Strossen
/ref> 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.
IFSA Strongman World Championships
2005: IFSA Strongman World Championships
Dates: 25 September 2005
Quebec City, Canada
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.
Heat 1
Heat 2
Heat 3
Finals
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.
Heat 1
Heat 2
Heat 3
Heat 4
Heat 5
Heat 6
Finals
Grand Prix events
*All results courtesy o
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
IFSA co-produced the Strongman Super Series events from 2001-2004 along with World Class Events (WCE)/Ulf Bengtsson.
2002
2003/04
2004
2005
Beginning in 2005, IFSA cut all ties with World's Strongest Man
The World's Strongest Man is an international Strongman competition held every year. Organized by American event management company IMG, a subsidiary of Endeavor, it is broadcast in the US during summers and in the UK around the end of Decem ...
and Strongman Super Series and began hosting their own grand prix events and world championships from 2005-2007.
2006
2007
Strongman Champions League
Developed by Ilkka Kinnunen and Marcel Mostert, the Strongman Champions League was launched in 2008 as "a new episode in strongman". It negotiated with IFSA to use its athletes. Since the end of 2008, the Strongman Champions League still operates independently after the dissolution of IFSA:
2008
Events were planned in the following locations but cancelled: Dubai, Germany and Hungary
UK Regional Competitions
British Championships (IFSA)
UK Championship (IFSA)
IFSA England's Strongest Man
{, class="wikitable"
!Year
!Champion
!Runner-Up
!3rd Place
, -
, 2005 , , Eddy Ellwood , , Mark Felix
Mark Felix (born 17 April 1966) is a Grenadian-English strongman competitor and regular entrant to the World's Strongest Man competition. He has competed at a record 17 World's Strongest Man contests, reaching the finals three times. He is the ...
, , {{flagicon, ENG Oli Thompson Oli or OLI may refer to:
Places
* Oli-ye Jonubi, a village in Bushehr Province, Iran
* Oli-ye Shomali, a village in Bushehr Province, Iran
People
* Óli, a Faroese and Icelandic given name
* Oliver (given name), nickname
* Oli (footballer) ...
See also
*List of strongman competitions World & continental championship contests
* World's Strongest Man
*Arnold Strongman Classic
*Strongman Champions League
* World Strongman Federation
* Giants Live
* World Muscle Power Classic defunct
* WSM Super Series Championship defunct
* Worl ...
References
External links
Official website
International sports organizations
Strength athletics organizations