Issues. People. Events.

Waterbury's Derek Poundstone successfully hoisted 913-pounds in the deadlift event at the 2011 World's Strongest Man Competition at Wingate University in North Carolina. It was a personal record.

  (The following is an account of Derek Poundstone's attempt to win the World's Strongest Man contest in North Carolina, USA, in September 2011. There were nine other athletes in the finals of the competition, but the Waterbury Observer focused primarily on Poundstone because he lives in Waterbury, Connecticut. He's our strongman. In tribute to the other athletes we've included more than a dozen images of their attempts to bring home the championship to their hometown, or country. It was an historic competition.)

   Story and Photographs By John Murray

   The massive bodies of strong man athletes are over-sized shock absorbers that cushion the pounding and abuse sustained during training and competition. Running fifty yards with 1000 pounds on your back places unimaginable stress on knees and ankles and lower backs. Pulling a two-ton Mack Truck 100 feet, pressing 342 pounds overhead for repetitions, and dead-lifting over 900 pounds are athletic feats that few men in the world can perform.