Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson

At 35 years old, Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson has this physical status:

Hafþór began his athletic career as a basketball player, playing as a center with a bodyweight of around 105 kg (231 lb). He started his senior team career for Icelandic 1. deild karla club Breiðablik in 2004. The following season he transferred to FSu Selfoss, but after about 10 games it was discovered that he had been playing with a broken bone in his ankle and was prompted for surgery. After recovering, in 2006, Hafþór moved to KR in the Icelandic top-tier Úrvalsdeild. However, after a screw in his ankle shattered, he had to undergo a second surgery in November, forcing him to miss the rest of the season.

To commence the 2007–2008 season, he moved back to play for FSu Selfoss and averaged 6.7 points per game, helping the team to achieve a promotion to the Úrvalsdeild. Unfortunately, the troublesome ankle continued and ultimately forced him to retire from basketball at the age of 20 shattering his dream of making it to the National Basketball Association one day.

Between 2004 and 2006, Hafþór played 32 games for the Icelandic junior national basketball teams and 8 games with Iceland's U-18 national team in Division A of the U18 European Championship. In May 2004, he won the Nordic championship with the U-16 team. During the 2004 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship Division B, he helped Iceland achieve promotion to Division A. In 2006, he won the Nordic championship again, this time with the U-18 team.

Strongman career

After recovering from the ankle injury, Hafþór was inspired by Ronnie Coleman and Dorian Yates and indulged himself in bodybuilding style training. One day, when four-time World's Strongest Man Champion Magnús Ver Magnússon spotted the 20 year old, 6 ft 9 in, 140 kg (308 lb) Hafþór Deadlifting in his gym 'Jakaból', he immediately realized his potential as a good prospect for strongman which paved the way for Hafþór to train with Stefán Sölvi Pétursson, Benedikt Magnússon, Páll Logason and Ari Gunnarsson.

The following year while training at the 'Strongman Base' gym, Hafþór was nicknamed Ljónið (the Lion) by Stefán Sölvi Pétursson because he continuously grew bigger and got stronger, eventually reaching his heaviest bodyweight ever of 210 kg (463 lb) in 2012.

With the newfound friendships and guidance, Hafþór progressed well in the sport and went on to win several strongman contests in Iceland multiple times from 2009 onwards, including Westfjord's Viking, Eastfjord Strongman Championships, Highland Viking, Iceland's Strongest Viking, OK Badur Strongman Championships, Akranes Strength Challenge and Strongest Man in Iceland. After placing 3rd behind his friends Pétursson and Magnússon in 2010, Hafþór won his first Iceland's Strongest Man title (Iceland's most prestigious title) in 2011 becoming the 9th Icelander to win the title since its inception in 1985. His winning streak continued and in August 2020, Hafþór won the Iceland's Strongest Man for the 10th consecutive time.

In January 2015, at the World's Strongest Viking competition held in Norway, Hafþór carried a 10-metre-long (33 ft), 650 kg (1,433 lb) log for five steps, thus breaking a legendary 1,000 year old record set by Orm Storolfsson.

Hailing from its IFSA roots, the Strongman Champions League organized several Grand Prix events which attracted a lot of athletes from around the world. It gave Hafþór the opportunity for international exposure, competing against the best strongmen in the world. From 2013 to 2015 Hafþór prolifically competed (upto 14 competitions in a single year) throughout many Grand Prix competitions in Germany, Netherlands, Finland, Norway, Serbia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Latvia, Russia, China, Malaysia and Brazil, winning 8 international titles, 3 silver medals and 2 bronze medals.

After placing 5th and 4th in 2012 and 2013 respectively, Hafþór won the 2014 Europe's Strongest Man competition in Leeds. The competition is organized by Giants Live. During the competition, after making a new world record in the Atlas stones event, he famously answered the reporter "I'm the future of strength, and I'm king of the stones!". Hafþór successfully defended his title in 2015, but in 2016, despite doing well in other events, he made a mistake at the car walk by gripping the apparatus from the center instead from sides, which compromised balance and eventually lost the title to Englishman Laurence Shahlaei. He regained the title in 2017 after an iconic battle with Eddie Hall and famously answered Bill Kazmaier "This is not a beauty contest, This is Strongman!" and successfully defended the crown again in 2018 and 2019 becoming a 5 x times Europe's Strongest Man Champion.

In addition to his 5 titles, Hafþór has also won the 2014 Giants Live FitX Melbourne, 2014 World's Strongest Viking, 2015 Giants Live Viking and 2015 Giants Live Sweden, making him the greatest Giants Live champion of all-time with 9 wins.

Hafþór took part in World's Strongest Man after earning a wild card invitation to the 2011 contest and placed 6th. Taking part again in ensuing years, he placed third in 2012, 2013 and 2015, and finished runner-up in 2014 to Žydrūnas Savickas by half a point, and again in 2016 to Brian Shaw by two points and finally in 2017 to Eddie Hall by one point, before becoming the World's Strongest Man in 2018 winning the competition by six and a half points over the runner up Mateusz Kieliszkowski. Hafþór was also the third Icelander to win the title after Jón Páll Sigmarsson and Magnús Ver Magnússon.

In his attempt to defend his title, Hafþór unfortunately suffered a torn plantar fascia during the group stages and emerged third place overall behind Martins Licis and Mateusz Kieliszkowski after doing all the events of the final while suffering from the injury, thus achieving the longest continuous podium streak in World's Strongest Man history with 8 (2012-2019). Hafþór has also won more vehicle pulls, stone events, and medleys & loading races than any other competitor in the history of the competition. Among the past winners who have managed to qualify for the finals at a 100% ratio, Hafþór and Mariusz Pudzianowski top the list with 9 finals out of 9 appearances. In May 2020, Hafþór stated that he would not return to Giants Live or World's Strongest Man competitions.

Hafþór entered the Arnold Sports Festival's limelight after winning 2nd place in the 2011 Arnold Amateur competition which was also his first ever competition abroad. This paved him the way to qualify for the Arnold Pro Strongman World Series, eventually winning the Arnold Brazil, Arnold Australia, Arnold South Africa and Arnold Canada competitions.

Widely recognized as the heaviest and the most difficult strongman contest in the world, Hafþór first participated in the Arnold Strongman Classic Finals in 2012, placing 10th (last place). But after a continuous progression, placing 8th in 2013, 5th in 2014, 7th in 2015, 5th in 2016 and 2nd in 2017, Hafþór defeated the defending champion Brian Shaw and won the 2018 Arnold Strongman Classic in Columbus, Ohio becoming only the 7th man to win the prestigious title. In the fourth Event Hafþór broke the Elephant bar Deadlift world record with 472 kg (1,041 lb) beating Jerry Pritchett's 467.7 kg (1,031 lb) which was established the previous year.

Hafþór successfully defended his title at 2019 Arnold Strongman Classic in dominant fashion and improved on his Elephant bar Deadlift world record, increasing it to 474 kg (1,045 lb) in only his second attempt out of the 3 allowed attempts.

After successfully defending his crown again in 2020, Hafþór became only the second person in history to win the Arnold Strongman Classic 3 x times in a row after Zydrunas Savickas.

In 2018, Hafþór won the inaugural World's Ultimate Strongman held in Dubai in a stacked field of 12 athletes. This year also marked the most dominant calendar year in strongman history with Hafþór winning the Iceland's Strongest Man, Europe's Strongest Man, World's Strongest Man, World's Ultimate Strongman and the Arnold Strongman Classic.

Also from 2018 onwards, Hafþór significantly increased his static strength under the mentoring of his strength coach since 2016: Sebastian Oreb and increased his squat to 445 kilograms (981 lb) during training and 460 kilograms (1,014 lb) during Thor's Powerlifting Challenge. In February 2020, Hafþór deadlifted 455 kilograms (1,003 lb) for 2 reps and became the first person in history to deadlift 1,000 lb for reps, and two weeks later, deadlifted an unofficial world record on the elephant bar with 480 kilograms (1,058 lb). All of the lifts were performed raw (only wraps for squats and straps for deadlifts).

On 2 May 2020, Hafþór deadlifted 501 kilograms (1,105 lb) under strongman rules (standard bar with figure 8 straps and single-ply suit) at Thor's Power Gym, Kópavogur, Iceland while being refereed by Magnús Ver Magnússon under the sanctioning of World's Ultimate Strongman and broke the almost 4 year old strongman deadlift world record of 500 kilograms (1,102 lb) by Eddie Hall. The lift was globally televised live by ESPN and the Guinness World Records verified it as 'the Heaviest Deadlift of all-time'.

In August 2020, Hafþór announced his retirement from strongman competitions.

After a two and a half year hiatus from competitive strongman, Hafþór announced his retirement from boxing and gradually returned back to strength specific training. A couple of weeks later on 30 October 2022, Hafþór participated at the 2022 Rogue Invitational in Austin, Texas and threw the 25.5 kg (56 lb) Scottish Highland Games weight over 6.17 metres (20 ft 3 in) using one arm for a new world record, and indicated a potential comeback to competitive strongman.

Strongman Placements: 56 x 1st places, 12 x 2nd places and 11 x 3rd places = 79 x podium finishes from 96 total competitions. Winning percentage: 46.1% in International circuit & 84% at National circuit Podium percentage: 75.4% in International circuit & 97% at National circuit Top 5 percentage: 92.3% in International circuit & 100% at National circuit

Powerlifting Despite the fact that Hafþór never trained specifically for powerlifting, he did 2 full competitions during his strongman career. In 2011 Íslandsmót, at the age of 22, he totaled 930 kg (2,050 lb) raw, winning 2nd place overall behind Páll Logason. During 2018 Thor's powerlifting challenge (sanctioned by the 'World Raw Powerlifting Federation'), with only 5 weeks of a casual preparation, Hafþór totaled 1,100 kg (2,425 lb) raw, which was at the time, the 5th highest raw superheavyweight powerlifting total of all-time. He won 2nd place for highest bench press behind Kirill Sarychev and won 1st place for the highest squat, highest deadlift, highest total and highest Wilks score, winning the overall competition.

During his 10 year international strongman career, Hafþór won all major Strongman competitions and titles which were available at that time including World's Strongest Man, Arnold Strongman Classic, Europe's Strongest Man, Strongman Champions League, Giants Live, World's Ultimate Strongman and his 30 international wins ranks him as the 3rd most decorated strongman of all-time. Even though he was noted primarily for his strengths in the moving events during initial years of his career (for example: Medley's and loading races, Keg-tossing, Power stairs, Vehicle pulls and Natural Stones which require good stamina and athleticism), Hafþór kept on improving and upscaled his brute strength which helped him excel in static events as well (for example: Deadlifts, Squats, Log Presses, Axle Presses, Circus Dumbbell etc.) making him a well rounded strongman by the year 2018. Experts believe the three years from that point onwards (2018, 2019 and 2020) as the 'highest peak performance' of any strongman in history considering Hafþór's dominance and having no weaknesses at any event. During these three years, the only instance Hafþór failed to win a competition was due to an injury and apart from it, remained unbeaten. Hafþór's international accolades and winning everything there is in the sport cemented his legacy as one of the greatest strongmen of all-time and due to numerous world records and feats of strength involving brute strength and static lifts, analysts and strongman experts regard Hafþór as "the strongest man to have ever walked the earth".

Boxing career

On 2 May 2020 after breaking the Deadlift World Record, Hafþór challenged its previous record holder Eddie Hall to a boxing match. With a training regime under his coach Billy Nelson and a stricter diet which differed from his strongman days, Hafþór completely transformed himself to suit the new sport losing 60 kg (132 lb) in the process.

Hafþór's first exhibition match was against ex-WBO European light-heavyweight champion Steven Ward in January 2021. For his second exhibition match he faced the 2010 Commonwealth Games Heavyweight Gold Medalist Simon Vallily in May 2021. On 18 September 2021, Hafþór faced Canadian Professional Arm-wrestler Devon Larratt in his first non-exhibition boxing match. Larratt volunteered for the fight when Eddie Hall withdrew himself after sustaining a Bicep tear during training. Within the first round of the fight, referee was forced to stop the fight awarding Hafþór the win via TKO. On 19 March 2022, after almost two years since its announcement, Hafþór and Eddie finally faced each other in Dubai which was taglined The Heaviest Boxing Match in History. Hafþór knocked down Eddie twice to win the fight via unanimous decision.

Acting career

Hafþór was cast as Ser Gregor "The Mountain" Clegane for the fourth season of the HBO series Game of Thrones in August 2013. This was his first main acting role, and he is the third person to depict the character after Conan Stevens played the role in season 1 and Ian Whyte in season 2 but the first actor to portray Clegane in more than one continuous season with his appearances in seasons four through eight. He was also cast for the lead role in the Philadelphia Renaissance Faire during their debut season in 2015. He appeared as 'King Thor', the leader of a Viking raiding party intent on capturing the city of Amman.

In 2018 Hafþór played Mongkut, the main villain in Kickboxer: Retaliation opposite Alain Moussi and Jean-Claude Van Damme in a story about a kickboxer (Moussi) who was sedated and taken to a prison in Bangkok, where he is forced to fight a giant for freedom and a large sum. In the same year he also played Big John in the film Operation Ragnarok about a town in the south of Sweden isolated after a viral outbreak and the trapped Swedes and immigrants uniting to survive an onslaught.

The next year, he starred with Mike Tyson in the action film Pharaoh's War, a plot about an ex-military man (Tyson) with a mysterious past leading a group of Egyptian refugees through the desert to protect them from a group of evil mercenaries.

In 2022, Hafþór had a minor role as Thorfinnr the Tooth-Gnasher in the historical epic fantasy The Northman which starred Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke, Anya Taylor-Joy and Willem Dafoe.

Film

Television

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