International Federation of Strength Athletes

International Federation of Strength Athletes

Type	Sports federation
Headquarters	Glasgow, Scotland
Official language	English
Managing Director	Christian Fennell

The International Federation of Strength Athletes (IFSA or IFSA Strongman) was an international governing body for strongman competition. IFSA operated from 1995-2007 and was based in Glasgow, Scotland.^[1]

History

Origins

In 1995, David Webster, a Scotsman who later received an OBE for his services to sport and head coordinator of the World's Strongest Man from its inception, and his colleague Dr Douglas Edmunds, seven-times Scottish shot and discus champion and twice world caber champion,^[2] along with representatives from the competitors in strength athletics including Jamie Reeves, Ilkka Kinnunen and Marcel Mostert formed a governing body called the International Federation of Strength Athletes ("IFSA"). IFSA ran its own grand prix events from 1995-2001 in cooperation with WSM. IFSA began co-producing the Strongman Super Series events from 2001-2004, still in cooperation with WSM. IFSA entered an agreement with World Class Events (WCE), headed by Ulf Bengtsson, to run the Strongman Super Series. The Strongman Super Series was designed to award the annual Strongman World Championship title, but also acted as a qualifying vehicle for the World's Strongest Man contest.

Split with WSM

For almost a decade IFSA and WSM worked in full cooperation, but this changed at the end of the 2004 season when IFSA returned to organizing its own grand prix events and World Strongman Championships from 2005-2007. 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 organization^[3] with some, such as Magnus Samuelsson describing it as "a new company...with the same name as our old federation".^[4] The attempt at dominance was not well received by TWI/WSM and disagreement ensued leading to a split in the sport. When IFSA and WSM split in 2004, the Strongman Super Series sided with TWI/WSM forming a rival federation to the IFSA.^[3] With the WSM being a TWI owned event, IFSA Holdings announced its own World Strongman Championships for 2005, to be held in Quebec, and thus from that point had no involvement in the WSM contest. From this point, IFSA continued to organize the annual IFSA World Strongman Championships and a series of Grand Prix events throughout the year. Between 2005 and 2007 IFSA had their own version of other major events such as a rival IFSA version of Europe's Strongest Man, known as Europe's Strongest Man (IFSA).

Thus, the world of strength athletics became fragmented, with a number of individuals being able to lay claim to be the strongest in the world by virtue of having won mutually exclusive events. Athletes affiliated to IFSA Strongman were not allowed to compete in the World's Strongest Man ("WSM"), which is produced by TWI and thus neither WSM and its associated Strongman Super Series nor the IFSA circuit could claim to have a comprehensive field of the top athletes. Some events did exist that bridged the divide between the major organizations, such as the Arnold Strongman Classic and Fortissimus.

Dissolution of IFSA/birth of SCL

After the 2007 IFSA World Championships in South Korea, news began to circulate of athletes not being paid, and equipment shipping costs not being honored.^[5] IFSA eventually ended up owing $63,000^[5] for shipping their equipment from England to South Korea and finally to Philadelphia. When the money was not paid, the equipment was put up for sale and was eventually purchased by other strongman contest promoters.^[6] The 2007 IFSA World Championships would be the final contest ran solely by and under the banner of IFSA.

In 2008 IFSA executives Ilkka Kinnunen and Marcel Mostert developed the Strongman Champions League and negotiated with IFSA to use its athletes. However, the dissolution of IFSA meant that since the end of 2007, the Strongman Champions League still operated independent of IFSA. Gradually, the last vestiges of IFSA influence began to diminish which led to the breaking down of barriers between the various concurrent circuits. Strength athletes were able to compete in more than one circuit and did so, with a cross over of athletes between the Giants Live circuit, the Strongman Champions League and the Strongman Super Series being apparent. The 2009 World's Strongest Man was therefore anticipated by the strength athletics world as promising to be "the best one yet"^[7] because the organisers could ensure invites were made to "every top athlete in the world" regardless of their affiliation to any particular strength athletics body.

IFSA Strongman World Championships

IFSA Strongman World Championships

2007
Tournament information
Location	Various international locations
Established	2005
Final year	2007
Format	Multi-event competition
Purse	varies
Final champion
Vasyl Virastyuk

2005: IFSA Strongman World Championships

Dates: 25 September 2005 Quebec City, Canada

Position	Name	Country	Points
1.	Zydrunas Savickas		103
2.	Vasyl Virastyuk		96
3.	Mikhail Koklyaev		93.5
4.	Andrus Murumets		86
5.	Raimonds Bergmanis		84.5
6.	Phil Pfister		82.5
7.	Vidas Blekaitis		81.5
8.	Magnus Samuelsson		69
9.	Robert Szczepanski		67
10.	Travis Ortmayer		64.5
11.	Geoff Dolan		54.5
12.	Karl Gillingham		43

2006: IFSA Strongman World Championships

Dates: 24, 25 November 2006 Reykjavik, Iceland

• This was the first year that qualifying heats were used. There were 3 heats, with the top 4 from each heat moving on to the finals.

Heat 1

Position	Name	Country	Points
1.	Mikhail Koklyaev		31.5
2.	Benedikt Magnusson		26.5
3.	Saulius Brusokas		23
4.	Nick Best		22
5.	Igor Pedan		21
6.	Geoff Dolan		19
7.	Anders Johansson		17
8.	Tomi Lotta		13

Heat 2

Position	Name	Country	Points
1.	Zydrunas Savickas		32.5
2.	Andrus Murumets		28.5
3.	Oli Thompson		25
4.	Vidas Blekaitis		24.5
5.	Steve MacDonald		23.5
6.	Jarno Hams		22.5
7.	Georg Ogmundsson		11.5
8.	Ettiene Smit		11

Heat 3

Position	Name	Country	Points
1.	Robert Szczepanski		30
2.	Vasyl Virastyuk		30
3.	Ervin Katona		28
4.	Travis Ortmayer		27.5
5.	Stefan Solvi Petursson		26
6.	Agris Kazelniks		20.5
7.	Janne Illikainen		13
8.	Bernd Kerschbaumer		3

Finals

Position	Name	Country	Points
1.	Zydrunas Savickas		80.5
2.	Mikhail Koklyaev		78.5
3.	Vasyl Virastyuk		72
4.	Vidas Blekaitis		70
5.	Andrus Murumets		55
6.	Robert Szczepanski		46.5
7.	Benedikt Magnusson		44.5
8.	Oli Thompson		43
9.	Nick Best		38
10.	Travis Ortmayer		35
11.	Saulius Brusokas		33.5
12.	Ervin Katona		20.5

2007: IFSA Strongman World Championships

Dates: 12–15 September 2007 Geumsan, South Korea

• The 2007 competition included 6 qualifying heats, with the top 2 from each heat moving on to the finals.

Heat 1

Position	Name	Country	Points
1.	Mikhail Koklyaev		19
2.	Vidas Blekaitis		16
3.	Agris Kazelniks		8
4.	Vladomyr Muravlov		7

Heat 2

Position	Name	Country	Points
1.	Derek Poundstone		16
2.	Jarno Hams		13
3.	Georg Ogmundsson		10
4.	Mick Holding		10

Heat 3

Position	Name	Country	Points
1.	Andrus Murumets		14
2.	Van Hatfield		14
3.	Nick Best		13
4.	Matt Wanat		8

Heat 4

Position	Name	Country	Points
1.	Vasyl Virastyuk		15
2.	Tom McClure		15
3.	Igor Pedan		15
4.	Suck Young		1

Heat 5

Position	Name	Country	Points
1.	Ervin Katona		16
2.	Zydrunas Savickas		15
3.	Ettiene Smit		12
4.	Hoygeun Min		4

Heat 6

Position	Name	Country	Points
1.	Saulius Brusokas		16
2.	Robert Szczepanski		15
3.	Travis Ortmayer		14
4.	Bumsoo Han		2

Finals

Position	Name	Country	Points
1.	Vasyl Virastyuk		57.5
2.	Mikhail Koklyaev		52.5
3.	Zydrunas Savickas		51.5
4.	Derek Poundstone		50.5
5.	Andrus Murumets		46.5
6.	Vidas Blekaitis		41.5
7.	Robert Szczepanski		40
8.	Van Hatfield		32.5
9.	Saulius Brusokas		29.5
10.	Tom McClure		26
11.	Ervin Katona		20.5
12.	Jarno Hams		17.5

Grand Prix events

• All results courtesy of David Horne's World of Grip

1995

Year	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place	Location
World's Strongest Viking 1995	Heinz Ollesch	Flemming Rasmussen	Torfi Olaffson	Copenhagen, Denmark
Lithuania Grand Prix 1995	Gary Taylor	Forbes Cowan	Stasys Mecius	Lithuania
Manfred Hoeberl Classic 1995	Magnus Ver Magnusson	Gary Taylor	Heinz Ollesch	Austria
Scandinavia's Strongest Man 1995	Flemming Rasmussen

1996

Year	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place	Location
World's Strongest Viking 1996	Flemming Rasmussen	Magnus Ver Magnusson	Torfi Olaffson	Copenhagen, Denmark
Denmark Grand Prix 1996	Riku Kiri	Magnus Ver Magnusson	Flemming Rasmussen	Denmark
Lithuania Grand Prix 1996	Riku Kiri	Heinz Ollesch	Magnus Ver Magnusson	Lithuania
Scandinavia's Strongest Man 1996	Flemming Rasmussen

1997

Year	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place	Location
European Open 1997	Riku Kiri	Gerrit Badenhorst	Magnus Ver Magnusson	Netherlands
World's Strongest Viking 1997	Flemming Rasmussen			Copenhagen, Denmark
Lithuania Grand Prix 1997	Stasys Mecius	Raimonds Bergmanis	Magnus Ver Magnusson	Lithuania
Scandinavia's Strongest Man 1997	Flemming Rasmussen

1998

Year	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place	Location
Faroe Grand Prix 1998 Atlantic Giants	Magnus Samuelsson	Svend Karlsen	Riku Kiri	Faroe Islands
Germany Grand Prix 1998	Riku Kiri	Jouko Ahola	Heinz Ollesch	Germany
Helsinki Grand Prix 1998	Jouko Ahola	Magnus Ver Magnusson	Svend Karlsen	Helsinki, Finland
Hungary Grand Prix 1998	Riku Kiri	Flemming Rasmussen	László Fekete	Hungary
Lithuania Grand Prix 1998	Jamie Reeves	Raimunds Kencivikius	Wayne Price	Lithuania

1999

Year	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place	Location
Viking of the North 1999	Hugo Girard	Magnus Samuelsson	Janne Virtanen	Iceland
Nordic Strongman Championships 1999	Matti Uppa
Faroe Grand Prix 1999 Atlantic Giants	Jouko Ahola	Magnus Samuelsson	Janne Virtanen	Faroe Islands
Czech Grand Prix 1999	Magnus Samuelsson	Jouko Ahola	Joe Onosai	Prague
Helsinki Grand Prix 1999	Jouko Ahola	Sami Heinonen	Janne Virtanen	Helsinki, Finland
Hungary Grand Prix 1999	Berend Veneberg	Gerrit Badenhorst	Jouko Ahola	Hungary
Holland Grand Prix 1999	Gerrit Badenhorst	Jouko Ahola	Berend Veneberg	Netherlands

2000

Year	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place	Location
Czech Grand Prix 2000	Jan Bartl	Svend Karlsen	Martin Muhr	Prague, Czech Republic
Ireland Grand Prix 2000	Magnus Samuelsson	Janne Virtanen	Svend Karlsen	Ireland
Polish Grand Prix 2000	Magnus Samuelsson	Janne Virtanen	Jarek Dymek	Poland
Helsinki Grand Prix 2000	Janne Virtanen	Magnus Samuelsson	Svend Karlsen	Helsinki, Finland
Romania Grand Prix 2000	Magnus Samuelsson	Janne Virtanen	Rene Minkfitz	Romania
Faroe Grand Prix 2000 Atlantic Giants	Regin Vagadal	Janne Virtanen	Magnus Samuelsson	Faroe Islands
China Grand Prix 2000 IFSA World Finals	Magnus Samuelsson	Hugo Girard	Janne Virtanen	China

2001

IFSA co-produced the Strongman Super Series events from 2001-2004 along with World Class Events (WCE)/Ulf Bengtsson.

The official logo of IFSA World Strongman Super Series from 2001 to 2004

Year	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place	Location
Holland Grand Prix 2001	Wout Zijlstra	Magnus Samuelsson	Svend Karlsen	Netherlands
Czech Grand Prix 2001[8]	Hugo Girard	Svend Karlsen	Magnus Samuelsson	Prague, Czech Republic
Sweden Grand Prix 2001 2001 Super Series Finals	Magnus Samuelsson	Hugo Girard	Svend Karlsen	Älvsjö, Stockholm
Overall placings	Magnus Samuelsson (15pts)	Hugo Girard (13pts)	Svend Karlsen (13pts)

2002

Year	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place	Location
Scotland Grand Prix (World Muscle Power 2002)	Svend Karlsen	Hugo Girard	Janne Virtanen	Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Sweden Grand Prix 2002 (Hammer Strength)	Hugo Girard	Svend Karlsen	Zydrunas Savickas	Stockholm, Sweden
Hawaii Grand Prix 2002 2002 Super Series Finals	Hugo Girard	Zydrunas Savickas	Mariusz Pudzianowski	Honolulu, Hawaii
Overall placings	Hugo Girard	Svend Karlsen	Zydrunas Savickas

2003/04

Year	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place	Location
Hawaii Grand Prix 2003	Mariusz Pudzianowski	Raimonds Bergmanis	Zydrunas Savickas	Honolulu, Hawaii
Holland Grand Prix 2003	Mariusz Pudzianowski	Zydrunas Savickas	Jarno Hams	Netherlands
Canada Grand Prix 2003	Hugo Girard	Mariusz Pudzianowski	Svend Karlsen	North Bay, Ontario Canada
Finland Grand Prix 2003	Hugo Girard	Mariusz Pudzianowski	Raimonds Bergmanis	Finland
2004 Arnold Strongman Classic 2003/04 Super Series Finals	Zydrunas Savickas	Svend Karlsen	Raimonds Bergmanis	Columbus, Ohio
Overall placings	Mariusz Pudzianowski	Zydrunas Savickas	Raimonds Bergmanis

2004

Year	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place	Location
Moscow Grand Prix	Mariusz Pudzianowski	Zydrunas Savickas	Vasyl Virastyuk	Moscow, Russia
Sweden Grand Prix	Magnus Samuelsson	Zydrunas Savickas	Svend Karlsen	Gothenburg, Sweden
Overall placings	Zydrunas Savickas	Vasyl Virastyuk	Mariusz Pudzianowski/ Magnus Samuelsson

2005

Beginning in 2005, IFSA cut all ties with World's Strongest Man and Strongman Super Series and began hosting their own grand prix events and world championships from 2005-2007.

Name and Location	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place
IFSA European Championships Riga, Latvia	Žydrūnas Savickas	Tomi Lotta	Andrus Murumets
Netherlands	Tomi Lotta	Jarno Hams	Rene Minkwitz
Hungary	Žydrūnas Savickas	Rene Minkwitz	Ettiene Smit
Russia	Mikhail Koklyaev
IFSA Nordic Championships Kristiansand, Norway	Svend Karlsen	Magnus Samuelsson	Juha-Matti Räsänen
Dubai	Tomi Lotta
Denmark	Rene Minkwitz	Van Hatfield	Juha Aitilla
IFSA Pan-American Championships Sao Paulo, Brazil	Phil Pfister	Travis Ortmayer	Karl Gillingham
IFSA World Open Sao Paulo, Brazil	Mikhail Koklyaev	Svend Karlsen	Robert Szczepanski
IFSA World Team Championships Sint Maarten	Team Europe Zydrunas Savickas Heinz Ollesch Raimonds Bergmanis Andrus Murumets	Team Pan-America Jon Andersen Travis Ortmayer Van Hatfield Geoff Dolan	Team World Eddy Ellwood Mark Felix Mikhail Koklyaev Adam Darasz

2006

Name and Location	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place
Cyprus	Travis Ortmayer	Igor Pedan	Raimonds Bergmanis
Dubai	Žydrūnas Savickas	Geoff Dolan	Andrus Murumets
Netherlands	Žydrūnas Savickas	Jon Andersen	Jarno Hams
Hungary	Mikhail Koklyaev	Vasyl Virastyuk	Travis Ortmayer
Latvia	Žydrūnas Savickas	Raimonds Bergmanis	Mikhail Koklyaev
Tulsa, Oklahoma World Strongman Challenge[9]	Žydrūnas Savickas	Derek Poundstone	Jon Andersen
Lithuania	Žydrūnas Savickas	Vidas Blekaitis	Igor Pedan
Serbia	Ervin Katona	Geoff Dolan	Sebastian Wenta
Ukraine	Sebastian Wenta	Igor Pedan	Viktor Yurcenko
Finland	Andrus Murumets	Robert Szczepanski	Steve MacDonald

2007

Name and Location	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place
Latvia	Andrus Murumets	Vasyl Virastyuk	Vidas Blekaitis
Lithuania	Žydrūnas Savickas	Andrus Murumets	Janne Illikainen
Europe's Strongest Man (IFSA)	Vasyl Virastyuk	Andrus Murumets	Vidas Blekaitis
Netherlands	Jarno Hams	Ettiene Smit	Georg Ogmundsson
Bulgaria	Robert Szczepanski	Janne Illikainen	Ervin Katona
IFSA 2-Man Team World Championships Vilnius, Lithuania	Team Lithuania Zydrunas Savickas Vidas Blekaitis	Team Russia Mikhail Koklyaev Igor Pedan	Team USA Derek Poundstone Tom McClure

Strongman Champions League

Developed by Ilkka Kinnunen and Marcel Mostert, the Strongman Champions League was launched in 2008 as "a new episode in strongman". It negotiated with IFSA to use its athletes. Since the end of 2008, the Strongman Champions League still operates independently after the dissolution of IFSA:

2008

The official logo of Strongman Champions League from 2008-present

Name and Location	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place	Date[10]
Latvia	Žydrūnas Savickas	Travis Ortmayer	Agris Kazelniks	22 March
Serbia	Žydrūnas Savickas	Ervin Katona	Andrus Murumets	10 May 2008
Netherlands	Žydrūnas Savickas	Andrus Murumets	Travis Ortmayer	1 June 2008
Bulgaria	Andrus Murumets	Žydrūnas Savickas	Ervin Katona	21 June 2008
Lithuania	Žydrūnas Savickas	Vidas Blekaitis	Saulius Brusokas	2 August 2008
Romania	Žydrūnas Savickas	Ervin Katona	Oleksandr Lashyn	16 August 2008
Finland	Mikhail Koklyaev	Žydrūnas Savickas	Ervin Katona	29 August 2008
Overall placings[11]	Žydrūnas Savickas	Ervin Katona	Agris Kazelniks

Events were planned in the following locations but cancelled: Dubai, Germany and Hungary

UK Regional Competitions

British Championships (IFSA)

Year	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place
2005	Mark Felix	Oli Thompson	Andrew "Stumpy" Raynes

UK Championship (IFSA)

Year	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place
1997	Stuart Murray	Steve Brooks	Russ Bradley
1999	Glenn Ross	TBC	TBC

IFSA England's Strongest Man

Year	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place
2005	Eddy Ellwood	Mark Felix	Oli Thompson

See also

• List of strongman competitions

References

1. Official site - history
2. The Herald Scotland Bring on the war games DOUG GILLON, Athletics Correspondent, 19 May 2007
3. IFSA, WCE, TWI, WSM, ESPN: Who's On First and How Do I Get To World's Strongest Man?, by Randall J. Strossen, IronMind, Thursday, February 10, 2005
4. Magnus Samelsson Official website
5. http://www.ironmind.com/ironmind/opencms/Articles/2008/Mar/IFSA_Going_Going___.html
6. http://www.ironmind.com/ironmind/opencms/Articles/2008/Feb/For_Sale__IFSA_Strongman_Equipment____Strongman_Worlds_in_a_Box.html
7. World’s Strongest Man 2009: More on the Competitors, Ironmind, Thursday, August 6, 2009 , by Randall J. Strossen
8. Girard Wins IFSA Prague Super Series by Randall J. Strossen, Ph.D. | ©2008 IronMind
9. http://www.ironmind.com/ironmind/opencms/Articles/2006/May/Savickas_Wins_IFSA_USA_Grand_Prix.html
10. IFSA Strongman Champions League
11. Official site of Strongman Champions League

External links

• Official website