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World's Strongest Man
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===1990s=== In 1995, Edmunds and Webster, along with representatives from the competitors including [[Jamie Reeves]], Ilkka Kinnunen and Marcel Mostert formed a governing body called the [[International Federation of Strength Athletes]] ("IFSA"). The IFSA began organizing bespoke events, such as the IFSA European Championships and also took the lead in working with the BBC and with TWI to organize the World's Strongest Man competition. For almost a decade, the IFSA and WSM were inextricably mixed, but this changed in 2004. 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 organisation<ref name="How"/> with some, such as [[Magnus Samuelsson]], describing it as "a new company ... with the same name as our old federation".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.magnus-samuelsson.net/en/veckobrev.asp|title=Newsletter dated 2008-01-04|website=magnus-samuelsson.net|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120303035640/http://www.magnus-samuelsson.net/en/veckobrev.asp|archive-date=3 March 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> The attempt at dominance was not well received by TWI and disagreement ensued leading to a split in the sport. Previously, in 2001, the IFSA in its former guise had entered an agreement with World Class Events (WCE), headed by Ulf Bengtsson, to run the Super Series. This Super Series was designed to award the World Championship title, but also acted as a qualifying vehicle for the WSM. When strongman split in 2004, the Super Series sided with TWI forming a rival federation to the IFSA.<ref name="How"/> With the WSM being a TWI owned event, IFSA Holdings announced its own World Championships for 2005, to be held in Quebec, and thus from that point had no involvement in the WSM contest. The split with IFSA, which banned its registered athletes from competing at WSM, meant that not all the recognized best strength athletes in the world were eligible to compete. However, the reputation of WSM as the premier event maintained its lure for broadcasting purposes. In recent years, the competition has been broadcast on [[ESPN]], [[ESPN2]], [[The Sports Network|TSN]], [[Televisa Deportes]] and [[Channel 5 (British TV channel)|Five]], and currently [[CBS Sports Network]] in the US. The longevity of the contest in strength athletics and its high levels of TV exposure over the years has led to it being described as ''"the granddaddy of all strongman contests"''.<ref name="How"/> No other strongman contest commands close to the WSM's levels of TV exposure.<ref name="How">{{cite web|url=http://www.ironmind.com/ironmind/opencms/Articles/2005/Feb/IFSA_WCE_TWI_WSM_ESPN_Whos_On_First_and_How_Do_I_Get_To_Worlds_Strongest_Man.html|title=IFSA, WCE, TWI, WSM, ESPN: Who's On First and How Do I Get To World's Strongest Man?|website=ironmind.com|access-date=4 October 2009|archive-date=14 March 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120314174531/http://www.ironmind.com/ironmind/opencms/Articles/2005/Feb/IFSA_WCE_TWI_WSM_ESPN_Whos_On_First_and_How_Do_I_Get_To_Worlds_Strongest_Man.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> The World's Strongest Man claims a viewership of 220 million.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/oct/06/bbc.channel5|title=Worlds Strongest Man|newspaper=The Guardian|date=6 October 2005|last1=Day|first1=Julia|access-date=13 February 2022|archive-date=1 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210401102157/https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/oct/06/bbc.channel5|url-status=live}}</ref> In the early 1990s, [[Magnús Ver Magnússon]] (Iceland) won the title four times (1991, 1994–1996) and became the second and only man along with Kazmaier to win three consecutive titles. He came into the 1991 contest as the reserve and ended up winning the show, and is the only man to do so. Magnús also finished second in both 1992 and 1993. The 1992 contest was won by Dutchman [[Ted van der Parre]], who at 7 feet tall, is the tallest man ever to win or compete at the World's Strongest Man. In one of the closest contests in the competition's history, just one point separated van der Parre in first from Magnús and [[Jamie Reeves]], who tied for second. In 1993, Welshman [[Gary Taylor (strongman)|Gary Taylor]] became the shortest man to ever win the contest at just 6 feet tall, defeating Magnús and [[Riku Kiri]] of Finland. Magnús eventually won his second title in 1994, defeating Austrian [[Manfred Hoeberl]] in a closely-fought contest, with Kiri finishing third for the second year running. He retained his title the following year, with South African [[Gerrit Badenhorst]] and Finland's [[Marko Varalahti]] completing the podium. In 1996, Magnús made it to three titles in a row, with his closest competitor Kiri pulling out of the final event due to injury, but still finishing in second. Badenhorst made the podium for the second year in a row. None of these three men reached the final the following year. The late 1990s saw Scandinavian countries taking control of the title, and this lasted until 2002. The relatively light 125 kg (275 lb) but dynamic [[Jouko Ahola]] from Finland won two titles in three years, 1997 and 1999. He later became a referee in WSM/strongman events and an actor. Sweden's [[Magnus Samuelsson]] won claim the 1998 title, becoming the only man to defeat Ahola in a WSM contest.
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