14 Facts About Raimonds Bergmanis

Raimonds Bergmanis was born on 25 July 1966 and is a Latvian politician and former Minister of Defence.

Raimonds Bergmanis placed 14th in the Super-Heavyweight weight class in 1992,9th in the Super-Heavyweight weight class in 1996, and could not finish in the Super-Heavyweight weight class in 2000.

Raimonds Bergmanis had a successful strongman career and was known for his consistency across multiple disciplines, but never managed to win many events outright.

Raimonds Bergmanis did win the World Muscle Power Championships in 1997, and followed this up with two 2nd place finishes in 1998 and 1999.

Raimonds Bergmanis competed in the Arnold's Strongest Man Contest, his best result coming in the 2003 and 2004 competitions where he placed 3rd on both occasions.

Raimonds Bergmanis reached the finals in the World's Strongest Man contest several times, finishing 7th in 1996 and 5th in 1997.

Raimonds Bergmanis competed in the 2001 contest, but was eliminated in the qualifying heats, before producing arguably the best performance of his entire strongman career in the 2002 WSM contest.

However, by coming 3rd in the Asia Stone - breaking the old world record in the process - and then winning the last two events of the final - the Deadlift and the Atlas Stones - Raimonds Bergmanis managed to overhaul a deficit to reigning champion Svend Karlsen and held off strong late charges from Juha-Matti Rasanen and Johnny Perry to finish 3rd overall.

Raimonds Bergmanis then followed this performance by finishing 4th in 2003 and 2004, although the latter was a result of Mariusz Pudzianowski failing a drug test, meaning Bergmanis was promoted from 5th to 4th.

Raimonds Bergmanis was elected as a president of the Latvian Olympic club, and had previously been a board member and vice president.

Raimonds Bergmanis has worked in the Latvian National Armed Forces.

Raimonds Bergmanis is a member of the Latvian Green Party, part of the Union of Greens and Farmers political alliance.

Raimonds Bergmanis was elected to the Latvian parliament in 2014.

Raimonds Bergmanis became minister of defense in 2015 after his predecessor Raimonds Vejonis was elected President of Latvia.