Magnús Ver Magnússon

Magnús Ver Magnússon (born 23 April 1963) is an Icelandic former strongman and powerlifter. He is a four times World's Strongest Man, having won in 1991, 1994, 1995, 1996, a two times Europe's Strongest Man, a World Muscle Power Classic winner and an EPF European powerlifting champion.

In his career, he won 12 international strongman competitions and another 20 national competitions (including the Iceland's Strongest Man eight times) and is regarded as one of the greatest strongmen of all-time.

Magnús began powerlifting in 1984. In 1985, he won a medal in the junior European and World Championships. He won the Senior European title in the 125 kg (276 lb) class in 1988 and 1990. His best lifts in competition include a 400 kg (882 lb) squat, 275 kg (606 lb) bench press, 370.5 kg (817 lb) deadlift, and a total of 1015.5 kg (2239 lb) all with single ply equipment.

Magnús competed in his first strongman contest in 1985, finishing third in the Iceland's Strongest Man competition won by Jón Páll Sigmarsson. He decided to focus solely on strongman competition after he won the 1991 World's Strongest Man contest. His strongman victories include the 1989 Pure Strength team contest in Scotland with Hjalti Árnason, the 1991 and 1993 International Power Challenge, the 1992 Scandinavian Strongest Man (Finland), the 1992 Nordic Strongest Man (Denmark), the 1994 Europe's Strongest Man, the 1995 World Muscle Power Championship, and the 1995 and 1997 Viking Challenges.

In addition to his four World's Strongest Man titles, Magnús was also runner-up in 1992 and 1993. He has also won the Iceland's strongest man competition eight times and The Westfjords Vikings (Vestfjarðavíkingurinn) of Iceland nine times. He carried Jón Páll's formula of being athletic for the dynamic tests of strength and having tremendous static strength to outlift some of the best powerlifters. He was able to easily out-deadlift the favoured O.D. Wilson by 40 kg in 1991 and out-squatted the world record holder in the squat, Gerrit Badenhorst, in 1995. After Magnus squatted 437.5 kg in a Smith machine setup, Badenhorst commented that he had previously underestimated Magnús' pure strength and that Magnús' squat was the greatest squat he had ever seen from someone of his bodyweight.

He competed in a one-off event at the Giants Live Strongman Championship 2019 held in Wembley Stadium, England against fellow strongman legend Bill Kazmaier in the Hercules Hold, with the weight being reduced by 20 kg on each side from what the professional athletes were working with. Despite having not competed in a strongman event since 2005, Magnús stunned the crowd with a time of 101.2 seconds (1m 41.2s), whilst Kazmaier could only manage just over 18 seconds.

Magnús frequently judges international powerlifting and strongman competitions and owns a powerlifting and strongman gym in Kópavogur called Jakaból (Nest of Giants). Magnus still trains in his gym regularly. Magnus also organizes different strongman competitions in Iceland, including Strongest Man in Iceland (Sterkasti maður á Íslandi) and Iceland's Strongest Viking ("Víkingurinn").

Magnús is the founder of the Magnús Ver Magnússon Strongman Classic, a strongman competition held in Iceland.