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 competitors on the planet independent of the organisations to which they were signed, and also as a tribute to the nineteenth-century Canadian strongman Louis Cyr , which gave it many similarities to Le Defi Mark Ten International which last took place in Canada in the early 1990s. After its first airing in 2008, the strength athletics magazine Milo described it as the ultimate strongman competition ever held. Despite a successful edition in 2009, a reported lack of a major sponsor for 2010 resulted in the competition being suspended, no future contests have been announced.
40-580: The world of strength athletics in 2008 was 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 the WSM and its associated WSM Super Series nor the IFSA circuit can claim to have
80-568: A 7-year run from 2004 to 2010 tested their hands at the GNC Grip Gauntlet. The Gauntlet eventually settled on three formats: Light, Medium and Heavy. In early 2009, the weight of the Rolling Thunder was dropped from 212 lb (96 kg) to 207 lb (94 kg), to correspond with IronMind's new version of the Rolling Thunder. In 2010 due to changes in the Rolling Thunder and a change from Captain's of Crush grippers to
120-518: A comprehensive field of the top athletes. Some events did exist that bridged the divide between the major organisations, such as the Arnold Strongman Classic . Fortissimus was to be another such bridge but with a difference. The driving force behind the event, Paul Ohl, is one of the world's leading authorities on the great Louis Cyr, the nineteenth century strongman and want to create a competition to honour this man, said to have been
160-486: 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
200-579: Is a bronze statuette of Louis Cyr hoisting the huge 273 ¼ lbs dumbbell that brought him fame on the evening of 19 January 1892 at London's Royal Aquarium . It was crafted by renowned Canadian sculptor Michel Binette with the original displayed at the Inverness Bronze Museum , in Inverness, Quebec , Canada. Dates: 28, 29 June 2008 Notre-Dame-du-Rosaire, Quebec , Canada Dates: 27, 28 June 2009 Montmagny , Canada This
240-610: Is not the Fortissimus competition title but a recognition of the achievements of a particular strongman over the previous year. [REDACTED] Mariusz Pudzianowski [REDACTED] Zydrunas Savickas The Fortissimus Lifetime Achievement Award is given to recognize the greatest strongman athletes in the history of the sport, both past and present athletes are eligible for this title. [REDACTED] Magnus Ver Magnusson IFSA Strongman The International Federation of Strength Athletes ( IFSA or IFSA Strongman )
280-425: The Arnold Strongman Classic and various WSM Super Series Grand Prix's. The last time the GNC Grip Gauntlet was run in a competitive format was the 2010 Arnold Classic. Since then it has changed to an informal challenge with no official results maintained. Prizes are still awarded for successful completion of the challenge. In 2002 Gillingham brothers and General Nutrition Center (GNC) introduced Blob Challenge in
320-870: 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" 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. Dates: 25 September 2005 Quebec City, Canada [REDACTED] Dates: 24, 25 November 2006 Reykjavik, Iceland [REDACTED] Dates: 12–15 September 2007 Geumsan, South Korea [REDACTED] 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. Developed by Ilkka Kinnunen and Marcel Mostert,
360-702: 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 . 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. IFSA eventually ended up owing $ 63,000 for shipping their equipment from England to South Korea and finally to Philadelphia . When
400-640: The Champions League. This later went further, guaranteeing the SCL its top five athletes would have places. The agreement was reemphasised in a joint statement from Marcel Mostert and Paul Ohl in early 2009. Fortissimus regards the ten events that are incorporated in its programme as the Classical Events of strength athletics. From 2009 Fortissimus established that the title of the champion would be "The Strongest Man on Earth". The winner's trophy
440-471: The Cyr stone but managed to lift it just one inch before deciding it was too much. Poundstone took 11 seconds over the first two stones, significantly quicker than all others except Savickas. Savickas is reported to have raised his hands in victory at seeing this time. However, his celebration was to have been premature. To the astonishment of the athletes, the crowd and even the organisers, Poundstone managed to move
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#1732791908637480-591: The GNC booth at the Mr. Olympia in Las Vegas, Nevada. After two successful editions, wanting to expand the challenge, they came up with the idea to test 3 main facets of grip strength: crushing strength, pinching strength and supporting strength. Therefore Wade approached Randall J. Strossen from IronMind Enterprises to get permission to use Captains of Crush Grippers as part of the challenge. In conversation with Strossen it
520-650: The Planet", guaranteed that the winner of the America's Strongest Man title would be granted a slot in Fortissimus from 2009, as would the winner of the Australia's Strongest Man title. The agreement with the Strongman Champions League went further, stating that the top three athletes would have guaranteed places and in return the top Canadian athletes would have guaranteed selected participation in
560-534: The Regional Community of Montmagny, Quebec was soon struck with the newly formed Fortissimus World Strength board. Derek Poundstone won the event in spectacular fashion. With the final event left, the Natural Stones of Strength, Zydrunas Savickas was 5 points clear of Poundstone. The three huge stone in the event were the 350 lb Bill Kazmaier stone, the 400 lb Paul Anderson stone and
600-516: The Rolling Thunder in 1993 and it is now a grip staple. One-hand deadlifts had long been a preferred means of testing and building grip strength and Rolling Thunder itself is a thick revolving deadlift handle (length: 7 1/2" (rotating portion is 6") and diameter: 2 3/8") to which weights can be attached. Such is the rise of its popularity that Rolling Thunder competitions are often held in conjunction with major strongman events, grip competitions and expos. Early on in its history, in 1993, Ironmind issued
640-453: 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: Events were planned in the following locations but cancelled: Dubai, Germany and Hungary World Championship Rolling Thunder The GNC Grip Gauntlet (officially GNC Pro Performance Grip Gauntlet )
680-630: 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. 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
720-452: The athletes to Notre Dame du Rosaire in June 2008 and thousands of spectators flocked to see many of the world's top strongmen perform, including Zydrunas Savickas , Derek Poundstone , Andrus Murumets , Travis Ortmayer and Mikhail Koklyaev . The event was lauded across the strongman world, with the likes of Ironmind and Milo magazine praising it. So popular was it that a three-year deal with
760-474: The beginning of the 20th century. In 1964, IronMind introduced heavy duty grippers which are now known as 'Captains of Crush'. By 2004, there were five models in increasing difficulty to close (The Trainer, No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4) and the selected gripper was the No.3. With the introduction of three more bridge grippers in 2006 (No. 1.5, No. 2.5 and No. 3.5), the challenge was offered in three different levels. For
800-548: 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
840-401: 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 with some, such as Magnus Samuelsson 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
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#1732791908637880-493: The edges making them more difficult to lift. They were called 'Fatman Blobs' for this reason. The blobs used at GNC Grip Gauntlet were made from second generation York dumbbells which were sleeker hence relatively easier than the first generation. The weight always remained 50 lbs, derived from Sorin's original blob. Rolling Thunder's history goes back more than a decade before the Gauntlet first existed. IronMind developed
920-548: 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
960-549: The event. Zydrunas Savickas reversed the results of 2008, where he came second, to clinch the title in 2009, with Poundstone coming second. Prior to the event, to further enhance the events standing a pre-tournament competition was held, the World Championship Rolling Thunder on June 26, an event which determined which athlete has the greatest grip strength in the world. Mark Felix successfully defended his title in this event. The 2010 edition
1000-421: The giant 517 lb Louis Cyr stone. The winner would be the best time or most stones loaded. Some of the athletes lifted one stone, others the second. When it came to the third, the Cyr stone that only Louis Cyr had previously lifted over a century before, most athletes passed on it. Some touched it but did not attempt to lift it. Zydrunas Savickas , having lifted the first two in an astonishing 8.8 seconds, tried
1040-407: The gold standard of world class crush grip strength. During final years of the gauntlet, they switched to Gillingham High Performance (GHP) grippers. York Blob was the sole challenge of GNC Grip Gauntlet in its two initial years. The challenge was to pinch grip and lift a 50 lb (22.7 kg) iron blob. The history of this implement goes back to the 60s when Richard Sorin was asked to refurbish
1080-443: The honour of having his name added to the stone, being the only man other than Cyr to lift the giant weight. Paul Ohl involved the local community, including the regional press, to increase the presence of the event. The 2009 competition saw Marcel Catellier, the chief commissioner of the Regional Community of Montmagny, as chairman of the board, in charge of the general administration of the new corporation and Paul Ohl as president of
1120-563: The idea of holding a third edition in 2011." . In 2008 Paul Ohl stated that the Strongman Champions League was one of three organisations that had made an agreement with Fortissimus in order to unite the world strength community, the others being the American Strongman Corporation , and the Aussiepower organization. Within the agreement, Fortissimus, the competition that confers the title of "Strongest Man on
1160-413: The light format, it was required to close the No. 2 gripper. For the medium format No. 2.5 was the requirement and for the heavy format it was the No. 3 gripper. Through IronMind's certification program which was also run in parallel to the GNC Grip Gauntlet, a lot of individuals certified themselves in the official certification list for the No. 3 Captains of Crush gripper which is now widely considered
1200-431: 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 and negotiated with IFSA to use its athletes. However, the dissolution of IFSA meant that since
1240-592: The new Gillingham High Performance (GHP) grippers, it was decided by Wade Gillingham that the historical integrity of the event was no longer sound enough to continue compiling a list of winners. The disciplines of crushing, pinching and supporting were tested. Crushing, used the IronMind Captains of Crush grippers, Pinching used the York Blob and Supporting was tested using IronMind Rolling Thunder. Torsion-spring hand grippers date back at least as far as
Fortissimus - Misplaced Pages Continue
1280-477: 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 , 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
1320-430: The stone. Screams of amazement were said to have come from the crowd. Inch by inch he raised the stone and eventually placed it on the platform. Later, Paul Ohl was to say to Derek Poundstone "You know, you weren't supposed to lift that stone. I put it in the competition as a tribute to Louis Cyr. Whoever is able to lift that stone would be considered an heir to Louis Cyr." Having lifted the fabled Cyr stone, Poundstone had
1360-400: The strongest man in the world. Fortissimus was set up to be the all-inclusive strength and power package to demonstrate "the essence of the sport of strongman is the multi-disciplinary array of tests of global strength, resulting from a combination of static (brute) strength, overall explosive power and power grip, strength athletics mastery, endurance and stamina" . The concept was to link with
1400-414: The tradition of strongman and to honor the memory and deeds of the great Louis Cyr. Ten events, called the Classical Events, were incorporated into the programme. The night before Day 1 of the 2008 event the athletes were honoured at a banquet hosted by Paul Ohl and was attended by the townspeople of Notre-Dame-du-Rosaire , where the event was being held, and the mayor of that town. Mayor Carl Dubé welcomed
1440-451: The weight room at University of South Carolina . Sorin noticed one half of a discarded 100 lbs first generation York roundhead dumbbell with a near broken handle which he moved to his YMCA gym. He then removed the remnants of the handle and used the 50 lbs belly of the dumbbell for pinch grip training. He named it the 'Blob' because it was just a blob of iron. The first generation of York dumbbell bellies protruded out more from
1480-425: Was a strength athletics contest that tested the grip strength of athletes over three disciplines, each designed to test one of the three recognized facets of hand strength: crushing; pinching and supporting. It was developed by brothers Brad Gillingham and Wade Gillingham and became an internationally recognised contest featured at some of the world's most prominent strength athletics events and expos, including
1520-507: Was an international governing body for strongman competition. IFSA operated from 1995 to 2007 and was based in Glasgow , Scotland . 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, along with representatives from
1560-492: Was decided that Wade's original idea to use a Thomas Inch dumbbell replica for the supporting grip challenge should be replaced with the IronMind Rolling Thunder . The GNC Pro Performance Grip Gauntlet debuted at the 2004 Arnold Expo Challenge. The three implements used were the No. 3 Captains of Crush gripper, the York Blob and the Rolling Thunder. An estimated 20,000 competitors at Fitness Expos over
1600-417: Was suspended. Canada World Strength noted in a formal statement: "Since the precondition for the holding of a third edition resided mainly in the arrival of a major sponsor by early December and that this condition has not been reached, the organizers have no choice but to [suspend] the 2010 edition." However, the door was held open for 2011 with the statement continuing: "“The Board, however, does not abandon
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