1. William Kazmaier was born on December 30,1953 and is an American former world champion powerlifter, world champion strongman and professional wrestler.
26 Facts About Bill Kazmaier
1. 2.
Bill Kazmaier is widely considered to be one of the greatest strength athletes of all-time, and was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame in 2017.
3.
Bill Kazmaier then struggled to earn a living as an oil rigger, a bouncer, and a lumberjack.
4.
Bill Kazmaier repeated the success in 1983 by first winning the United States Powerlifting Federation National Powerlifting Championships in July and later the IPF World Championship in November for a second time.
5.
Bill Kazmaier won this IPF World Championship despite two major injuries.
6.
Bill Kazmaier had a severe pectoral injury, from which he never recovered completely, and shortly before the IPF Championships, had torn his hip flexors in the squat.
7.
From 1981 onwards Bill Kazmaier's career was affected by multiple muscle tears and injuries, preventing him from setting the bar even higher.
8.
Bill Kazmaier sustained chest, shoulder and triceps injuries, ruling out further records in the bench press.
9.
Bill Kazmaier was the first man to win the WSM title three times and to this day, remains one of only two men ever to win it three times in a row.
10.
Bill Kazmaier won the log lift, engine race, steel bar bend, playboy bunny squat lift, silver dollar deadlift, and the final tug of war.
11.
Bill Kazmaier's wins included the log lift, deadlift, squat, loading race and engine race.
12.
Bill Kazmaier's absence cleared the way for Kazmaier's main rival, Geoff Capes, to win the title in 1983.
13.
Bill Kazmaier returned to the World's Strongest Man Contest in 1988, where he won three of eight events: the log press, deadlift and sack race; and took two second places including the truck pull, but was disqualified for moving his hands in the sausage forward hold, so the time was stopped prematurely.
14.
Bill Kazmaier was the reigning world record holder of this event from 1987 Pure Strength with a height of 5.34 metres.
15.
Jon Pall won the event with a clearance of 5.05 metres and with four contestants coming in-between the two, Bill Kazmaier was trailing Jon Pall by four points, a deficit which cost him too much to catch up at the final event McGlashen Stones, eventually emerging runner-up to Jon Pall.
16.
Bill Kazmaier ended his career as a competitive strongman in 1990.
17.
Bill Kazmaier trained as a wrestler with Verne Gagne and Brad Rheingans, and entered professional wrestling in 1986, with a WWF match in Calgary, Alberta on November 10,1986, defeating David Barbie.
18.
Bill Kazmaier would wrestle for Fighting Network RINGS in Japan in early 1991.
19.
Bill Kazmaier received several shots at Lex Luger's WCW World Heavyweight Championship but failed to win the title.
20.
Bill Kazmaier briefly teamed with Rick Steiner, only to lose to The Enforcers in a tournament final for the WCW World Tag Team Championship.
21.
Bill Kazmaier opened a fitness club, Kaz Fitness Center, in Auburn, Alabama in the early 1980s.
22.
On retiring from active competition in the 1990s, Bill Kazmaier was hired as a co-commentator for the American ESPN broadcast of the annual World's Strongest Man competition along with Todd Harris and 2006 World's Strongest Man winner Phil Pfister.
23.
Bill Kazmaier considers his most important contributions to public life to be his work as a motivational speaker for 3D Sports Tech, addressing school and YMCA groups.
24.
Bill Kazmaier is the youngest child of William Bartholomew and Florence Louise Steinhoff Kazmaier.
25.
Bill Kazmaier had one brother, two sisters, and a half brother.
26.
Bill Kazmaier's father owned soda water bottling plants in Burlington and Kenosha, Wisconsin.