(2010-01-11)

5 Time World's Strongest Man Mariusz Pudzianowski was inaugurated into the 'WSM Hall of Fame' as its first member. Mariusz surged ahead to win the vote after Polish fans swamped the website with votes for ‘Super Mariusz'. The Polish legend, finished first with a huge margin and around 98% of the total votes cast.

Mariusz Pudzianowski has won more World's Strongest Man titles than any other strongman competitor in the history of the competition.

Pudzianowski began workouts for strength sports at age 13. He cites his key strength supplement as malted milk. "I met a kid, he was 12 years old," he said in an interview. "I could not lift him, then he tried to, and he lifted me up 6 inches in the air. He was strong. This motivated me to work out and become the world's strongest man."

On May 1, 1999 Pudzianowski entered his first Strongman competition, held in Płock, Poland. He achieved his first major success at the international level in 2000 when he finished fourth in his first World's Strongest Man competition. He returned to win the WSM contest in 2002, and retained his title in 2003 by the largest margin ever achieved in the competition.

He returned to win the title for a third time in 2005. In the 2006 World's Strongest Man contest, he came second to Phil Pfister, the first American to win the championship since Bill Kazmaier in 1982. Pudzianowski had led for most of the competition, however Pfister won the last five events to narrowly clinch the title. In the final event, the Atlas Stones, the two went head-to-head; Pfister narrowly beat Pudzianowski.

Pudzianowski regained his title in 2007, winning with one event to spare (which he had also done in 2003 and 2005) and joining Jón Páll Sigmarsson and Magnús Ver Magnússon as the only four-time winners.

In the WSM 2007 competition, Pudzianowski said that his target was to become the only person to win the event 5 times, which he did by winning the WSM 2008 competition in the very last event ahead of Derek Poundstone. He succeeded despite a serious calf injury, (which he suffered in the Polish Strongman Championship Cup of 2008 and further exacerbated during the WSM qualifying rounds), seriously threatening his chance of even reaching the final.

Apart from WSM, Pudzianowski is also known for practicing martial arts (he is a fourth kyu green belt in Kyokushin kaikan) and trained in the art of boxing for 7 years before he started to compete in strongman competitions.

Mariusz took part in the 2008 Polish version of Dancing with the Stars, eventually finishing in second place overall. Despite often placing in the bottom two, his popularity with the audience saw him voted through to the grand final.

Official Website: www.pudzian.pl

Mariusz Pudzianowski

from WSM offical website: http://www.worldsstrongestman.com/