Andrés Guðmundsson

Andrés Guðmundsson
Born	Andrés Guðmundsson (1965-04-17) 17 April 1965 Iceland
Occupation	Strongman
Height	195 cm (6 ft 5 in)[1]
Weight	137 kg (302 lb)[1]

Competition record
Strongman
Representing  Iceland
World Strongman Challenge
1st	1994
European Hercules
1st	1994
European Musclepower Championsahips
2nd	1994
Iceland's Strongest Man
1st	1999

Andrés Guðmundsson (born 17 April 1965)^[2] was a leading international strongman competitor and Highland Games competitor, and former holder of the World Strongman Challenge title.

Biography

Andrés Guðmundsson began his career in sport in the world of track and field athletics. After turning his attention to professional sport he became involved in strength athletics. His time in strength athletics conicided with the careers of fellow Icelandic strongmen Jón Páll Sigmarsson and Magnús Ver Magnússon and thus to an extent was overshadowed by their careers. His competition experience ranged from volleyball, discus and shotput to the traditional Scottish Highland Games. His discus career resulted in him being in fourteenth place on the Icelandic all-time list with a throw of 53m (in Reykjavík for the Ármann club on 3 September 1991).^[2] In 1994 he was also ranked as Iceland's number 2 shotputter (and 87th in the world) with a putt of 18.63m^[3]

Strength athletics

In 1994 he reached the peak of his strength athletics career, winning the World Strongman Challenge, European Hercules and coming second in the European Muscle Power Championships.^[4] The European Musclepower Championships in Callander, Scotland were held on a weekend that had both the European Musclepower Championships and Highland Games World Championships on the same field.^[5] At this time, he was widely regarded as one of the top dual threats in Highland Games and strongman competition, but he was sidelined by a career threatening injury, namely a tear of his pectoral muscle.^[6]

For a while this looked to have been a career-ending injury in and Andrés began focussing his experience in other directions. He opted to share his experience with Icelandic fitness people and emerging strongmen, and as a result developed with his wife, Lára B Helgadóttir, School Fitness which quickly became the most popular and well known school sporting event in Iceland.^[7]

In 1999, he looked to be making a comeback. He was reported to have won Iceland's Strongest Man competition in 1999.^[1] In August 1999 he had a podium finish in the Bison Highland Games^[8] and in 2000 he was added to the list of competitors for the IFSA Helsinki Grand Prix 2000.^[6] Despite a top international field such was his reputation that he was placed 5th in the betting to win, so soon after his comeback began.^[1] However, a recurrence of the pec tear forced him to pull out.^[1]

Skólahreysti

The Helsinki Grand Prix in 2000 was his last major international competition and from that point focussed almost entirely on the Skólahreysti project. The first Skólahreysti contest was held in 2005 with six schools participating. Its goal was to encourage children to take part in a wide-ranging sports experience based on the criteria used in their general physical education. The 2009 season saw 110 schools participate with the final broadcast live by RÚV, and audience surveys showed that around 49% of Icelanders tuned in.^[7]

References

1. 1 2 3 4 5 Samson Power - HELSINKI GP 2000 March 18
2. 1 2 Global Throwing Icelandic top 25 Archived September 18, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
3. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2005-03-18. Retrieved 2010-02-02. 
4. ↑ PREVIOUS STRONGMAN CONTESTS TOP 3 David Horne
5. ↑ Picture shown in North American Highlander Association: Blending Strongman and the Highland Games by Randall J. Strossen
6. 1 2 Andreas Gudmunsson Making a Comeback... by Randall J. Strossen, Ph.D., Wednesday, December 29, 1999
7. 1 2 Skólahreysti (School Fitness) - background Archived July 16, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
8. ↑ Samundsson Wins Bison Highland Games