1. Louis Cyr started his strong man career at the age of 17, after some publicity came about due to an incident when the young Louis Cyr was reported to have lifted a farmer's heavily laden wagon out of the mire in which it had become stuck.
23 Facts About Louis Cyr
1. 2.
Louis Cyr was matched in a contest against Michaud of Quebec, who was recognized as Canada's strongest man of the time.
3.
In 1878, the Louis Cyr family immigrated to Lowell, Massachusetts in the United States.
4.
In Lowell, Cyr changed his name from Cyprien-Noe to Louis, as it was easier to pronounce in English.
5.
Louis Cyr entered his first strongman contest in Boston at age 22, lifting a horse off the ground.
6.
The fully grown male horse was placed on a platform with two iron bars attached, which enabled Louis Cyr to obtain a better grip.
7.
In 1882, while working as a logger, Louis Cyr married Melina Comtois.
8.
Louis Cyr then began touring Quebec with his family in a show they called "The Troupe Cyr".
9.
From 1883 to 1885, Louis Cyr served as a police officer in Montreal, Quebec.
10.
Louis Cyr entered a strongman competition in March 1886, at Quebec City, against the reigning Canadian strongman, David Michaud.
11.
Louis Cyr lifted a 218-pound barbell with one hand and a weight of 2,371 pounds on his back, to his opponent's 2,071 pounds to win the title of strongest man in the country.
12.
Louis Cyr became a police officer after breaking up a knife fight and carrying both participants to the police station.
13.
Louis Cyr resisted the pull of four draught horses as grooms stood cracking their whips to get the horses to pull harder, a feat he again demonstrated in Ottawa with Queen Victoria's team of draught horses during her royal visit.
14.
Louis Cyr challenged the regular officers to a foot race, beating the majority, and they took him on.
15.
Louis Cyr patrolled as a police officer between 1883 and 1885 in Sainte-Cunegonde, known now as Petite-Bourgogne in Montreal.
16.
Louis Cyr's dumbbells were often so unwieldy that many respectable strongmen were unable to lift them off the floor, let alone lift them overhead.
17.
Louis Cyr was a big man in all ways, both in heart and in size.
18.
On 1 December 1891 at Sohmer Park in Montreal, before some 10,000 people, Louis Cyr resisted the pull of four draught horses, two on each side, despite grooms cracking their whips to encourage the horses to pull harder and strain their haunches.
19.
Louis Cyr was very popular in Britain, being feted by celebrities and Royalty alike, including the Prince of Wales and Queen Victoria.
20.
For years, Louis Cyr pictured himself as a modern Biblical Samson with tresses to match.
21.
Louis Cyr slimmed down as best he could for his last contest of strength, with Hector De Carrie.
22.
Louis Cyr died on November 10,1912, in Montreal, of chronic nephritis and was interred at St-Jean-De-Matha.
23.
Louis Cyr was portrayed by Antoine Bertrand in the 2013 biographical film Louis Cyr, l'homme le plus fort du monde.