Congratulations to Brett Jones and Jeff Peterson for officially bending the (in)famous IronMind® Red Nail™. As interest in short bending continues to grow, more guys are accomplishing this landmark feat of strength first achieved by none other than John Brookfield. The Red Nail™ Roster is the official list of everyone certified on the IronMind® Red Nail™.

USA Weightlifting Executive Director Wes Barnett has included the details of NBC's schedule for providing the most coverage ever of weightlifting from the Athens Olympics. You can see the specifics in his Weekly Report on the official USA Weightlifitng web site.

With the 2004 World's Strongest Man competition drawing nearer, all eyes are on the athletes who will be invited to this year's contest, and things are looking good for Steve Kirit to gain the one slot allocated to an American competitor. Currently, the final list of WSM competitors is being worked on, getting it ready to present for the final decisions, and while the top eight or nine slots are said to be without question, the last remaining three or four are subject to more review and discussion. Sources involved in these negotiations said today that there is no compelling reason to consider anyone but Steve Kirit for the American slot, since he made the finals in Riga and has won the last two US National Championships.

NAS vice president Dione Wessels confirmed that the 2004 IFSA-USA National (men's heavyweight) Championships has been moved to the Show of Strength in October. There is no additional word at this time about how the American competitor for the 2004 World's Strongest Man competition is going to be selected.

2003 World's Strongest Man winner Mariusz Pudzianowski (Poland) won Europe's Strongest Man over the weekend, with one of his countrymen ("another new Polish guy") coming in second place. Zydranas Savickas was third, "another Polish guy was in 4th," and Svend Karlsen, 2001 WSM winner, was fifth. Two competitors were reportedly drug tested at the contest, but no further details are available at the moment.

While nothing official has been announced about who will be invited to the 2004 World's Strongest Man competition, bets are already being placed and we offer here one possible list. Who might be invited? Mariusz Pudzianowski, Svend Karlsen, Zydrunas Savickas, Raimonds Bergmanis, Hugo Girard, Magnus Samuelsson, Vasyl Viratiuk, Richard Gosling, Mark Felix, Levi Vaoga, Tommi Lotta, and one American.

The latest official word has been that one American competitor would be going to the 2004 World's Strongest Man contest, with the selection being based on performances in Riga and at the US Nationals. With Steve Kirit making the finals in Riga and finishing in seventh place, he is the leading American candidate for WSM at the moment, but reports indicate that no selection will be made until after the US Nationals. Further reinforcing the importance of the US Nationals for World's Strongest Man selection, participation in the US Nationals is reportedly a requirement for eligibility for the 2004 WSM contest, so that any American competitor who would like to compete in WSM this year must compete in the US Nationals. For details on the US National Championships, please check the official IFSA-USA web site at and the official NAS web site.

Muscle Beach (Venice, California) was the site not only of Kevin Meskew's USPF deadlift contest yesterday, but it also hosted some impressive feats of hand strength and short bending. Running the West Coast Rolling Thunder® Championships after the deadlifts gave everyone a chance to try this well known and fun grip challenge: Phil Andrews won the +225 pound title, with a pull of 179-1/2 pounds, followed by Dave Garman (160-1/2 pounds) and Steve Belanger (137 pounds). John Heart won the under 225 pound class with a lift of 159-1/2 pounds. The Rolling Thunder® contest was officiated by Odd Haugen, just back from the IFSA Moscow Super Series event, where among other things, Odd ripped enough skin off his hand to feed a small cannibal. Jumping in after the official lifts had been completed, Odd, who is the 2003 US National Rolling Thunder Champion, effortlessly hauled up 234-1/2 pounds on his first attempt, without even taking a warm up. Eying the world record, Odd called for 259-1/2 pounds next and while it looked like it was going up, it just wasn't to be. Adding to the fun, Clay Edgin officially bent an IronMind® Red Nail™, and then was cheered on by the crowd when he followed up by bending another IronMind® Red Nail™ that had been cut down to six inches.

Defending World's Strongest Man winner Mariusz Pudzianowski won in Riga, followed by Raimonds Bergmanis and Vasyl Virastiuk. Steve Kirit, the only American to make the finals, finished in seventh place.

Jim Smith, of the Diesel Crew, has announced the Global Grip Challenge 2004, so if you're a grip guy, here you go. Scheduled for September 18th in Wysox, Pennsylvania, "the contest will feature the 'Best of the Best,' including today's top grip strength athletes, along with rising grip stars. All facets of grip will be tested in this grueling 1 day event. Contest events will be: Grippers, Rolling Thunder®, Vertical Bar, 2-Hand Plate Pinch and Short Bending. Prizes and trophies will be given out to the top 6 place finishers with cash prizes going to the winners of the Special Events after the contest. 'You Want It...Come and Get It.' Please see Diesel Crew's website for details."

Don't think the superheavyweights are the only great class in weightlifting, because from the sound of things, the lightest category (56-kg) could open the Athens Olympics with a tremendous battle, and might well be won with a world record clean and jerk. Halil Mutlu (Turkey) is a two-time Olympic gold medalist and was a dominant 56-kg lifter before he moved up to the 62-kg category. And while nobody has threatened Mutlu's 138.5-kg snatch world record in the 56-kg category, Wu Meijin (China) has proven that he's capable of breaking Mutlu's world record in the clean and jerk (168.0 kg). Wu has been hovering around huge weights for a while and at this year's Asian Weightlifting Championships (Almaty, Kazakhstan), the diminutive lifter nailed a huge 165-kg clean and jerk. Mutlu has been noncommittal about whether he would remain in the 62-kg category or return to the 56-kg category, but we learned today that he is intending to compete as a 56er. If you're having trouble getting fired up for your squats, just think of 56-kg guy cleaning and jerking 165 or 170 kg!

No doubt about it, when IronMind® reported on Mike Roy's World's Strongest Grip contest, explaining that we had been asked for our comments and were inviting everyone else to comment on it as well, the fireworks started. For openers, the predictable sources either couldn't understand the facts or tried to twist them; others simply griped; most of the rest of us were left scratching our heads, asking questions like, "What the heck is . . . " As IronMind® found out more about the events that had been proposed, we formulated our recommendations, which were passed back to the promoter along with all the comments we had received from everyone else. But wait, the party isn't over yet, so if you still have some thoughts on this, here's another way to present your view, because now there is a forum for the World's Strongest Grip contest: http://pub32.bravenet.com/forum/2731681791/show/315612 .

Looking for another great John Brookfield training idea that will help you close the next Captains of Crush® Gripper in your sights? Then be sure to check John's latest Grip Tip, The Big Squeeze. John Brookfield, as we have been saying for a very long time, never seems to run out of fresh ideas for building hand, wrist and forearm strength, and his latest Grip Tip, just posted, could be the key to your closing the Captains of Crush® gripper that has been defying your best efforts to put it away. Navigate to John Brookfield's Grip Tips via the Training Articles link in the menu bar of the IronMind® home page.

Think that strongman competition is only for 25-year-old men? It isn't, and NAS is proving it with the National Championships for masters, women and teens on July 31 at the KCI Expo Center in Kansas City, Missouri. Events are farmer's walk, log clean and press, Conan's wheel, Atlas stones, and a yoke-duck walk-sled drag medley. For more information, please contact Scott Tully: bsolympic@yahoo.com.

The great Bulgarian weightlifter Yoto Yotov said today that although he will not be competing in the Athens Olympics, there is a good possibility that he will be lifting in the 2005 European Weightlifting Championships. The Olympic Games and World Championships medalist has proven very durable, having been a top lifter from the late 1980s through the late 1990s, and he's not done yet. Lifting in Croatia in May of this year, Yotov cleaned and jerked 200 kg, at 83 kg body weight, and said that he is serious about lifting in the 2005 European Weightlifting Championships.

The Moscow Super Series was a tremendous success, with incredible support from the city of Moscow, including mayor Yuri Luzhkov, and with most of the world's top strongmen in the competition, it is no surprise that the event produced a new world record. Two weeks ago, Zydrunas Savickas set a new world record in the log lift, of 187.5 kg. To illustrate the level of competition at the Moscow Super Series, four athletes succeeded with 180 kg: Hugo Girard, Vasyl Virastiuk, Zydrunas Savickas, and Raimonds Bergmanis. But that was just the beginning, because former Olympic weightlifter Raimonds Bergmanis then succeeded with 190 kg, for a smashing new world record in the log lift. With what was described as "tremendous enthusiasm," the contest enjoyed the full support of Moscow, from the mayor to the citizens who packed the stadium. "I've never signed so many autographs," one competitor said. "This was tremendous for the sport." Final placings were: 1) Pudzianowksi 2) Savickas 3) Virastiuk 4) Bergmanis 5) Karlsen 6) Girard 7) Samuelsson 8) Nigatullin 9) Philippi 10) Johansson 11) Thompson 12) Haugen 13) Flerka.

Once again showing his stuff, four-time World's Strongest Man winner Magnus Ver Magnusson won Iceland's Strongest Viking. Magnus finished with 88-1/2 points, for a decisive victory. Benedikt Magnussson was second, with 71 points, and Jon Valgeir Williams was third, with 70 points.

Mariusz Pudzianowski, the defending World's Strongest Man winner, emerged victorious at the Moscow Super Series today. Savickas was second, overall, and Virastiuk was third, overall. Finishing next were: 4) Bergmanis 5) Karlsen 6) Girard and 7) Samuelsson. More details will follow as they become available.

After the first day of the IFSA Moscow Super Series, Zydrunas Savickas is in the lead. Vasyl Virastiuk is in second place, Hugo Girard is in third place, Mariusz Pudzianowski is in fourth place, Magnus Samuelsson is in fifth place and Svend Karlsen is in sixth place.

It's official: Shawn Littleton has just been certified on the No. 3 Captains of Crush® gripper, and Eli Thomas has just been certified on the IronMind® Red Nail™. Congratulations! Shawn Littleton's name has been added to official certification list for closing the world famous No. 3 Captains of Crush® Grippers and Eli Thomas has been added to the Red Nail™ Roster, the official list of people certified for accomplishing this benchmark short bend. Way to go guys!

Georgi Asanidze (Republic of Georgia), who did not train for 15 months following shoulder surgery, started his journey back toward the competition platform in Athens five months ago. Asanidze - whose illustrious career includes a world record snatch (181 kg), a bronze medal from the 2000 Olympics, and a pile of world championship medals - began his comeback in what can only be described as "very bad form" for a world-class 85-kg weightlifter, snatching 100 kg and cleaning and jerking 120 kg, but is now looking like he will be in the hunt for a medal in Athens. Insiders predict that this class will be a tough battle involving a handful of competitors, including Greek weightlifting superstar Pyrros Dimas, who will be attempting to make Olympic history by winning his fourth gold medal in the sport.

The organizer and the man who developed the events for the World's Strongest Grip contest, Michael Roy, is a well-known professional strongman whose specialty is feats of lower-arm strength, such as bending spikes and tearing cards. When IronMind® received the proposed list of events, one of the first things that jumped out was the number of card-tearing events listed for this contest, so many that, in fact, we wondered if there had been a mistake typing the list. When I confirmed the list with Mike, I asked him why he had included so many card-tearing events in his contest, and he said that people enjoy watching this classic feat of strength and the card-tearing events he listed shouldn't be very hard for a lot of guys based on what he says he has read on the internet about what guys say they are doing. Asked for clarification on the card-tearing events, Mike said that the single decks are standard casino-grade cards, while the double-deck tears will be done with cards that are slightly lower quality. Explaining that the contest will evolve, Mike says that his idea was to present a major grip competition and his goals were to provide something that was fair, would be connected to feats of grip strength from the past, and that was something both the competitors and the spectators would enjoy. "This year will open the door," Mike said.

There's no denying that when the events were announced for the upcoming World's Strongest Grip contest, a lot of jaws dropped. Why so many card-tearing events? What in the world is a banana dumbbell press? Where are the old standbys? IronMind® was right in there with everyone else on this, especially because we first introduced the idea of crushing, pinching and supporting grip in 1991 and this concept - now widely accepted and repeated - has been the basis of most modern grip contests. The highly popular grip-strength format that we have dubbed "the Gillingham Grip Gauntlet" is an example of this concept at work, since it utilizes benchmark feats of strength to test each of these elements of hand strength (a No. 3 Captains of Crush® Gripper, The Blob, and a Rolling Thunder®). As we listened to feedback from grip guys, dug a little deeper into the events themselves, and tried to have an open mind, we came to the conclusion that these events weren't as wacky as they might have sounded at first, and armed with a description of what they were, at least nobody would get a rude awakening on the day of the contest - with the events announced ahead of time, guys could train for them, and besides having fun at the contest, there would be a chance to earn a substantial amount of prize money, and since the expectation is for thousands of spectators, it seemed like a terrific opportunity for grip guys to showcase their talents.

With all profits going to the Melrose Humane Society and the Chelsea Soldier's Home, Total Performance Sports is putting on a strongman/strongwoman contest. Scheduled for July 10, the contest will be held at the Wonderland Dog Track in Revere, Massachusetts. Email C. J. Murphy (murph@totalperformancesports.com ) or Bob Jodoin (bob@totalperformancesports.com ) for contest details.

With a career that is assuming the overtones of a great tragedy, Polish weightlifting phenom Szymon Kolecki continues to be plagued by back problems and today his coach said that Kokecki would not start in the Athens Olympics. Kolecki is a weightlifter of rare talent, whose lifting resumé already includes world records, world championship medals and an Olympic silver medal from the Sydney Games. Despite those glowing successes, ongoing back problems have limited his competitive career to a shadow of what it already might have been, and for Kolecki to miss Athens is supremely disappointing for him, his coach and his many fans around the world. Earlier this year, things were looking up for the personable Polish weightlifting star, and as first reported here in March, "Lifting in a small meet, Poland's Szymon Kolecki kicked off the year with a huge 195-kg snatch and a 240-kg clean and jerk, prompting informed speculation that he was on course to break the world record in the clean and jerk in the 105-kg category. Unfortunately, the back problems that have been hampering what would otherwise be a brilliant weightlifting career recurred and Kolecki, at the moment at least, will not start at the upcoming European Weightlifting Championships (Kiev, Ukraine), saving himself, instead, for the Olympic Games this summer in Athens." Now, regrettably, it looks like Athens is out of the question, too.

The new format of 12 competitors, including one American, continues to be seen as the plan for the 2004 World's Strongest Man contest, and Douglas Edmunds, Ph.D. said today that the IFSA Holdings Board of Directors will decide which athletes go to the competition. Members of the IFSA Holdings Board of Directors are Jussi Laurimaa, who is the acting CEO of the freshly-minted organization, Ayman Moumina, and the leaders of the original IFSA organization, Douglas Edmunds, Jamie Reeves, Ilkka Kinnunen and Marcel Mostert.

Right-hand winners in the professional class at the Quebec Arm Wrestling Championships were: Steve Gagne (0-160 pounds), Eric Cotton (161-181 pounds), Laurent Verville (182-200), and Sylvain Perron (201+ pounds). Left-hand pro winners were: Neil Looker (0-175), Jeff King (176-200), and Sylvain Perron (201+ pounds). Christine Bedard won the women's professional class.

Starkie Sauers, Training Director at Clark's Nutrition and Fitness, knows a strong guy when he sees one, but when Bruce Webster demonstrated his tremendous grip strength by casually ripping 244 pounds off the ground with a Rolling Thunder®, even Starkie was impressed. Bruce Webster is part of the great tradition of huge Southern California lifters who are perfectly comfortable to fly well below the mainstream radar, even though at about six feet three inches tall and 320 pounds body weight, it would be hard to miss him. While doing some shopping at Clark's yesterday, Bruce (who is reportedly just eating bananas and milk), at Starkie's urging, gave the Rolling Thunder® a try, and he yanked 244 pounds (later weighed on a UPS scale) off the ground "like it was a bag of groceries" according to one of several witnesses. It's hoped that Bruce will compete in the upcoming West Coast Rolling Thunder® Championships at Muscle Beach (Venice, California) on July 17. Everyone who wants to try their hand at this fun benchmark of grip strength should check the NAS calendar, and with a good performance they can qualify for the US Rolling Thunder® National Championships. Get details on these NAS events at the official NAS web site; and if you are in the Illinois area, be sure to check out Tony Soucie's NAS Strongman Record Breakers/IronMind® Rolling Thunder® competition this weekend. For details, please check the NAS-Illinois web site.