Strength athletics in Iceland

Strength athletics in Iceland refers to the participation of Icelandic competitors and holding national strongman competitions. The sport's roots have a long and ancient history going back to c. 874 – 1056,^[2] with sagas about Orm Storolfsson, Finnbogi and Grettir Ásmundarson^[3] to the 18th and 19th century traditional strongmen including Snorri Björnsson, Brynjólfur Eggertsson and Gunnar Salómonsson; all the way up to the televisation of modern strongman competitions in the late 1970s.

Iceland has held a preeminent position as a nation due to the enormous success of its competitors at international strength platforms, who between them have won myriad international strongman competitions across all governing bodies including nine World's Strongest Man titles and for holding more strongman world records than any other country^[4] hence is often regarded as 'the strongest nation of the world'.^{[5][6][7][8][9]}

Icelanders testing each other through tests of strength predates the introduction of Strength athletics. There had also been a number of noted powerlifters and weightlifters including Skúli Óskarsson, Óskar Sigurpálsson, Guðmundur Sigurðsson, Birgir Borgþórsson, Guðmundur Helgason and Þorsteinn Leifsson during the twentieth century. However, in the era of Strongman, Iceland has a record that belies the size of the nation's population, having won everything there is to win in the sport.

Before Iceland had its own national competition, it already had men competing on the international circuit. In 1983, the young powerlifter and bodybuilder, Jón Páll Sigmarsson entered the 1983 World's Strongest Man competition where he emerged runner-up. Sigmarsson went on to win the competition the following year and in total won the World's Strongest Man four times, and became the first man to win the title 4 times. Sigmarsson was also a six times World Muscle Power Classic champion, 2 times Europe's Strongest Man and winner of the Pure Strength title.

His contemporary, and good friend Hjalti Árnason, was also competing parallel to him and he won Le Defi Mark Ten International and podiumed in several competitions including World Muscle Power Classic and World Strongman Challenge.

Magnús Ver Magnússon followed in their footsteps and emulated Sigmarsson's four World's Strongest Man titles, becoming the second man to win the title 4 times. He also won World Strongman Challenge, Europe's Strongest Man and European Hercules competitions. Ver Magnússon and Árnason also won the 1989 Pure Strength team competition.

There have also been several highly acclaimed Icelandic competitors, competing across top tier international competitions including Andrés Guðmundsson, Torfi Ólafsson, Kristinn Óskar Haraldsson, Benedikt Magnússon and most notably Stefán Sölvi Pétursson who achieved fourth-place in the 2010 World's Strongest Man competition.

The next entire decade of Icelandic Strongman competitions was dominated by Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson who won the main National title 11 times in addition to winning several other national competitions multiple times and also winning 9 Giants Live tours including the Europe's Strongest Man 5 times, 8 Strongman Champions League titles, the Arnold Strongman Classic 3 consecutive times, the World's Strongest Viking 2 consecutive times, the World's Strongest Man and the World's Ultimate Strongman becoming the most decorated Icelandic Strongman of all-time.^[10]

Since 1985, Iceland has had its own national competition, Iceland's Strongest Man. There have also been four other major titles contested in Iceland, including Strongest Man in Iceland, Iceland's Strongest Man (IFSA), Iceland's Strongest Viking, and Icelandic Power Trial Championships; in addition to other smaller competitions such as Westfjord's Viking, Grundarfjord Viking, Highland Viking, Eastfjord Strongman Championships and powerlifting competitions such as Thor's Powerlifting Challenge.

In 1985, the very first Iceland's Strongest Man contest was held^[11] and it was not for the faint-hearted. Three of the six competitors ended up in hospital.^[12] Jón Páll won the competition while Hjalti Árnason emerged second and Magnús Ver third. Thus, in the very first contest the podium finishers would between them go on to win the World's Strongest Man eight times, the World Muscle Power Classic seven times, the World Strongman Challenge, Le Defi Mark Ten International and numerous powerlifting titles including the super-heavyweight IPF World Powerlifting Championships. The contest's profile was immediately internationally renowned and it eventually became an open competition, although if a non-Icelander wins, the title of Iceland's Strongest Man defers to the highest placed Icelander. This has only happened on 2 occasions when the legendary Bill Kazmaier of the United States and Regin Vagadal of the Faroe Islands won. Iceland's Strongest Man remains the most prestigious and the highest ranking strongman title of the country.

Being held for 40 consecutive years since its inception in 1985, Iceland's Strongest Man is the oldest 'continuously held' strongman competition in the world. It has been won by 11 Icelanders and 7 of them progressed on to become multiple winners. With 11 titles, Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson holds the record for the most number of wins while Magnús Ver Magnússon and Jón Páll Sigmarsson have 8 and 5 wins respectively. The competition is annually organized and hosted by Hjalti Árnason.

Following men have reached either 4th or 5th place in the competition: Guðni Sigurjónsson, Flósi Jónsson, Jón Gunnarsson, Kjartan Guðbransson, Guðmundur Sigurðsson, Arnar Már Jónsson, Unnar Garðarsson, Sæmundur Sæmundsson, Svavar Einarsson, Jón Valgeir Williams, Ólafur Eyjólfsson, Ingvar Ingvarsson, Jón Björn Björnsson, Georg Rúnar Ögmundsson, Þorvaldur Kristbergsson, Sturla Ólafsson, Jón Þór Ásgrímsson, Skúli Ármannsson, Tómas Darri Þorsteinsson, Kristján Páll Árnason and Kári Elíasson.

This contest is organized by Magnús Ver Magnússon, and is held in different locations throughout Iceland. In the past, it has been held in Grindavík, Sudureyri, Grafarvogur and Hafnarfjördur.

The IFSA organised the Iceland's Strongest Man competition for a number of years before 2005. However, when the IFSA disassociated from the World's Strongest Man competition, Iceland's Strongest Man remained the official qualifier with no IFSA involvement. The IFSA did continue to promote their own version until their financial demise at the end of 2008.

This contest dates back to 1992^[28] however, in some years the results of this contest have been combined with those of Iceland's Strongest Man in order to ascertain who qualifies for the World's Strongest Man.

This tournament was also known by the name Aflraunameistari Islands.^[31] It was held for 9 years between 1986 and 2011.

• Westfjord's Viking (Vestfjarðarvíkingin)
• Grundarfjord Viking (Grundarfjarðartröllið)
• Highland Viking (Upsveitarvíkingin)
• Eastfjord Strongman Championships (Austfjarðartröllið)
• Icelandic Highland Games
• Thor's Powerlifting Challenge

Iceland's Strongest Woman has been held since 1995 through different organizers, but from 2019 onwards Sigfús Fossdal took over and holds the competition annually in Akureyri.

Nordic Strongman Championships consists of athletes from Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark.^[32]

• In 2005, the competition was held under IFSA in Kristiansand, and in 2012 and 2013 in Harstad, Norway under Giants Live.
• From 2014 onwards, the competition was promoted to global level, re-titled as the World's Strongest Viking and was held consecutively for 8 years under Strongman Champions League.

The competition was organized by Hjalti Árnason to commemorate Jón Páll Sigmarsson, and 3 tournaments were held from 2010 to 2012 with the participation of the top athletes of the world.

The competition is noted for its vintage events and is held annually outdoors during winter season.

Iceland was also the venue for one of Giants Live grand prix competitions with the participation of top athletes of the world. The competition was named Giants Live Viking Challenge/ Giants Live Iceland.

• Strength athletics
• Strongman