Finnish former strongman and powerlifter (born 1963)

Riku Kiri (born April 5, 1963 in Kotka, Finland) is a Finnish former strongman and powerlifter, best known for competing in the World's Strongest Man compe*ion, narrowly missing out on capturing the *le on more than one occasion. He has been referred to as: "the strongest man never to win World's Strongest Man."

Contents

• 1 Life and career
• 2 Powerlifting
• 3 References
• 4 External links

Life and career

The 1.94 m (6:ft 4 in), 145:kg (320:lb) Kiri is particularly noted for his static strength including a 300:kg (661.4:lb) single-arm deadlift and a 302.5:kg (666.9:lbs) raw bench press. He squatted 440:kg in the Dutch Open strongman contest of 1995 in a Smith machine apparatus. He also bench pressed 290.0:kg (639.3:lb) raw in an official WPC meet along with many other records. At 19 years old in 1983, Riku held a World Record in powerlifting in the squat lift in IPF compe*ion, 350:kg (125:kg weight category).

In one of his first ever strongest man contests, he defeated reigning World's Strongest Man winner Jón Páll Sigmarsson, in 1985.

For most of his appearances in World's Strongest Man compe*ion, Kiri has been hampered by ankle injuries. Although Kiri placed 3rd and 2nd respectively in 1993 and 1996, ankle injuries plagued him during both contests. In reference to the Car Carry event in 1993, Kiri's coach, Markku Suonenvirta, famously said: "His ankle is broken but he's a tough guy." Kiri's ankle was in fact not broken but badly injured and weakened. In the 1996 WSM final event (Power Stairs) Kiri was about to go head to head with Magnus Ver Magnusson. However, just after the starter's whistle, Kiri dropped out due to another ankle injury. Kiri was also forced to drop out of the 1998 World's Strongest Man final due to an ankle injury, finishing in 6th place.

His background is in security work, and he holds shares in Gold's Gym-Helsinki.

Powerlifting

Training records:

• Squat: 400 kilograms (880:lb) raw
• Bench Press: 302.5 kilograms (667:lb) raw
• Deadlift: 390 kilograms (860:lb) raw
• Best deadlift set: 7 x 352.5 kilograms (777:lb), 4 x 380 kilograms (840:lb) raw
• Total: 1,092.5 kilograms (2,409:lb) raw

References

External links

• "World's Strongest Man results". Archived from the original on January 3, 2010.
• Interview at Samson Power