580 pounds from the floor to overhead.
The standing world record. And the fucker made it look easy.
[That's him at the beginning. But the record lift starts at 4:26]
The question of who is REALLY the “World’s Strongest Man" is always a fascinating one!
Olympic weightlifting is REALLY “Powerlifting” because in Physics, power is defined as work (“strength”), or force times the distance the force is applied through, divided by time. Thus in Olympic weightlifting, the faster you move the greater the POWER you will exert!
Whereas, in the misnomer “Powerlifting” which should REALLY be called “strength lifting” because time is not as major a factor in completing the lift…i.e. it is practically all pure work (force x distance) or “strength”.
In all fairness, I think the winners in the “World’s Strongest Man” competitions should probably be the ones who could lay the most legitimate claim to the title "World's Strongest Man", as their events require a combination of tremendous strength (!) AND speed (combined together as POWER) AND stamina/endurance!
As great as the Iranian’s Olympic weightlifting “world record” clean and jerk is, it has been exceeded by the great superhvywgt. Leonid Taranenko, from the former Soviet Union OFFICIALLY on two occasions. Once, at the 1987 World Olympic Weightlifting Championships, held in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia (approx. 584 lbs.), and later, at a special "world record setter’s" event in Australia (approx. 585-586 lbs.).
However, the governing body which controls international Olympic weightlifting, the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF), got fed up with the rampant heavy drug usage in Olympic weightlifting and literally threw out all of the existing “dirty/drug-tainted” former world Olympic weightlifting records in the early 1990’s and started over!! These included Taranenko’s two official world record clean and jerks of 584-586 lbs, as well!
Of all the magnificent 3 disciplines testing strength/power/endurance: Olympic weightlifting, Powerlifting, and World’s Strongest Man competitions, ONLY Olympic weightlifting is RIGOROUSLY AND RANDOMLY drug-tested with SEVERE penalties for testing positive for a whole battery of banned doping substances!!
For example, during the 2004 Olympic year, America’s top superhvy. Olympic weightlifter, Shane Hamman, was randomly drug-tested no less than 18 times by the USAW (the U.S. equivalent of the IWF)!!
