Mariusz Pudzianowski
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| Marius Pudzianowski | |
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| Born | Mariusz Pudzianowski February 7, 1977  Biała Rawska, Poland |
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| Residence | Poland |
| Other names | Pudzian |
| Occupation | Strongman, Actor, Singer, Rugby Player |
| Height | 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)[1] |
| Weight | 312 pounds (142 kg)[1] |
| Title | World's Strongest Man (5X) |
| Religious beliefs | Roman Catholic |
| Website http://www.pudzian.pl (Polish) |
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Mariusz Pudzianowski ([ˈmarjuʃ pudʑaˈnɔfski]) (born on February 7, 1977 in Biała Rawska, Poland) is a strongman competitor. He has won more World's Strongest Man titles than any other strongman competitor, winning the event in 2008 for the fifth time. He announced his retirement from the strongman competitions shortly thereafter.
He is sometimes known by the nicknames Pudzian, Dominator, Super Mariusz (Super Mario), Pyton (Python) and Duży Pyton (Big Python).
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[edit] Strongman career
Pudzianowski began workouts for strength sports at age 13. Pudzianowski cites his key strength supplement as malted milk. "I met a kid, he was 12 years old," he said in an interview. "I could not lift him, then he tried to, and he lifted me up 6 inches in the air. He was strong. This motivated me to work out and become the world's strongest man."
On May 1, 1999 Pudzianowski entered his first Strongman competition, held in Płock, Poland. He achieved his first major success at the international level in 2000 when he finished fourth in his first World's Strongest Man competition. He returned to win the WSM contest in 2002, and retained his title in 2003 by the largest margin ever achieved in the competition. In March, 2004 he also became the Strongman Super Series World Champion.
He initially finished third in the WSM contest in 2004 but was later disqualified after testing positive for a banned performance enhancing substance. He was forced to return his prize money, stripped of the International Federation of Strength Athletes points from the event, and received a one-year ban from competition. Pudzianowski did not dispute his banned substance violation and waived his right to have his stool sample verified.[citation needed] He then returned to win the title for a third time in 2005.
In the 2006 World's Strongest Man contest, he came second to Phil Pfister, the first American to win the championship since Bill Kazmaier in 1982. Pudzianowski had led for most of the competition, however Pfister won the last five events to narrowly clinch the title. In the final event, the Atlas Stones, the two went head-to-head; Pfister narrowly beat Pudzianowski.
Pudzianowski regained his title in 2007, winning with one event to spare (which he had also done in 2003 and 2005) and joining Jón Páll Sigmarsson and Magnús Ver Magnússon as the only four-time winners.
In the WSM 2007 competition, Pudzianowski said that his target was to become the only person to win the event 5 times, which he did by winning the WSM 2008 competition in the very last event ahead of Derek Poundstone. He succeeded despite a serious calf injury, which he suffered in the Polish Strongman Championship Cup of 2008 and further exacerbated during the WSM qualifying rounds, seriously threatening his chance of even reaching the final.
Apart from WSM, Pudzianowski is also known for practicing martial arts (he is a fourth kyu green belt in Kyokushin kaikan). Moreover he was an amateur boxer for 7 years before he started to compete in strongman competitions.[citation needed]
[edit] Achievements
Professional Competitive Record - [1st (42),2nd (7) ,3rd (4) - Out of Total(59)]
Performance Metric - .964 [Polish - .995 International - .953]
| Professional | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | INJ | DNQ | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Polish | 15 | 1 | 16 | ||||||||||
| International | 27 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 43 | |||||
| Combined | 42 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 59 |
COMPLETED CONTESTS
World's Strongest Man - Charleston, West Virginia, USA - winner (9/6-14/2008)
World Strongman Federation Grand Prix - Belarus - Silichy, Belarus - winner (8/3/2008)- Poland Cup - Poland - winner (8/2/2008)
World Strongman Federation Grand Prix - Russia (Globe's Strongest Man) - Russia - winner (2008)- Poland vs. The World - Poland - winner (2008)
- Mohegan Sun Super Series - Uncasville, Connecticut, USA - 2nd place (1/19/2008)
- World's Strongest Man - Anaheim, California, USA - winner (2007)
Svend Karlsens Viking Power Super Series Grand Prix - Norway - winner (2007)- Venice Beach Super Series Grand Prix - Venice Beach, California, USA - 2nd place (2007)
- Mohegan Sun Super Series Grand Prix - Uncasville, Connecticut, USA - winner (2007)
- European Championship - Poland - winner (2007)
World Strongman Cup Grand Prix - England - winner (2007)
World Strongman Cup Grand Prix - Latvia - winner (2007)
World's Strongest Man - Sanya, China - 2nd place (2006)- Poland Super Series Grand Prix - Poland - winner (2006)
- Moscow Super Series Grand Prix - Moscow, Russia - winner (2006)
- Mohegan Sun Super Series Grand Prix - Uncasville, Connecticut, USA - winner (2006)
- World Strongman Cup Grand Prix - Russia - winner (2006)
- World Strongman Cup Grand Prix - Poland - winner (2006)
- World Strongman Cup Grand Prix - Latvia - winner (2006)
World Strongman Cup Grand Prix - Belarus - winner (2006)- Arnold's Strongest Man - Columbus, Ohio, USA - 6th place (2005)
- World's Strongest Man - Chengdu, China - winner (2005)
- Poland vs. The World - Poland - winner (2005)
- Mohegan Sun Super Series Grand Prix - Uncasville, Connecticut, USA - winner (2005)
Sweden Super Series Grand Prix - Sweden - winner (2005)- Poland Super Series Grand Prix - Poland - winner (2005)
- Venice Beach Super Series Grand Prix - Venice Beach, California, USA - winner (2005)
World Strongman Cup Grand Prix - Austria - winner (2005)- Arnold's Strongest Man - Columbus, Ohio, USA - 4th place (2004)
World's Strongest Man - Nassau, Paradise Island, The Bahamas - disqualified {originally 3rd place} (2004)- European Championship - Jelenia Gora, Poland - winner (2004)
- World Team Championship - Plock, Poland - winner (2004)
- Moscow Super Series Grand Prix - Moscow, Russia - winner (2004)
- Polish Cup - Poland - winner (2004)
World's Strongest Man - Victoria Falls, Zambia - winner (2003)- European Championship - Sandomierz, Poland - winner (2003)
World Team Championship - Hungary - winner (2003)
Ylitornio Challenge - Finland - winner (2003)- World Record Breakers - Gdynia, Poland - winner (2003)
- Polish Cup - Poland - winner (2003)
- Arnold's Strongest Man - Columbus, Ohio, USA - 5th place (2003)
- Finland Super Series Grand Prix - Finland - 2nd place (2003)
Canada Super Series Grand Prix - Canada - 2nd place (2003)
Holland Super Series Grand Prix - Holland - winner (2003)- Hawaii Super Series Grand Prix - Hawaii, USA - winner (2003)
World's Strongest Man - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - winner (2002)- Hawaii Super Series Grand Prix - Hawaii, USA - 3rd place (2002)
- Sweden Super Series Grand Prix - Sweden - 5th place (2002)
- European Championship - Gdynia, Poland - winner (2002)
- Polish Cup - Poland - 2nd place (2002)
- World Team Championship - Hungary - 3rd place (2002)
World's Giants - Ireland - winner (2002)
World's Strongest Man - Sun City, South Africa - 4th place (2000)- Helsinki Grand Prix - Finland - 10th place (2000)
- World Team Championship - Hungary - 2nd place (2000)
- World Cup Grand Prix - Poland - winner (2000)
- World Team Championship - China - 3rd place (1999)
- Polish Cup - Poland - winner (1999)
[edit] World's Strongest Man
[edit] Wins (5)
| Year | Runner-Up |
| 2002 |  Zydrunas Savickas |
| 2003 | Zydrunas Savickas |
| 2005 | Jesse Marunde |
| 2007 | Sebastian Wenta |
| 2008 | Derek Poundstone |
[edit] Runner-up (1)
| Year | Winner |
| 2006 | Phil Pfister |
[edit] Musical career
In 2005, Mariusz formed a musical group called Pudzian Band, with himself as a singer. In 2006 the Pudzian band toured for the first time, and they recorded the song Zdobyć świat ("To Conquer the World"). The other members of the group are Krystian Pudzianowski (Mariusz's brother), and Anna Brzozowska.
[edit] Dancing With The Stars (Polish version)
Mariusz took part in the 2008 Polish version of Dancing with the Stars, eventually finishing in second place overall.
Despite often placing in the bottom two, his popularity with the audience saw him voted through to the grand final. [2]
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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[edit] Footnotes
- ^ a b Official website stats, in Polish, accessed 11 January 2009]
- ^ "Photos of Mariusz Pudzianowski in Dancing with the Stars". http://film.wp.pl/id,64294,name,Mariusz-Pudzianowski,osoba.html.
