Who Was The Largest Ever Olympic Weightlifter?

The versatility of weightlifting barbells and bumper plates means that people of all abilities, all sizes and all levels of strength can lift weights and boost their strength, challenging themselves to ever greater heights.

You often see this in Olympic weightlifting, where a mix of technique and training can create athletes as talented as Naim Suleymanoglu and as gifted as Emily Campbell or Mark Henry.

Whilst there have been many people who have claimed to be the world’s strongest man, Mark Henry is one of the few people with a legitimate claim to this, as well as a record for being the world’s largest ever Olympic Athlete.

What can we learn from his unusual career trajectory, exceptional all-around talent and unique legacy in the sport of weightlifting? Does he have a claim to be the world’s strongest man? And why did he underachieve at the highest level?

Why Was Mark Henry Such An Unusual Weightlifter?

Besides being an exceptionally large athlete from an early age, weighing over 100 kg at the age of ten and peaking at a competition weight of 188kg by the time of his final Olympic Games appearance, Mark Henry was a rare all-around weightlifter in a sport with such specific disciplines.

He won championships in powerlifting, Olympic weightlifting and even the first Arnold Strongman Classic years after he had retired from competition, something that few other weightlifters had even attempted, let alone excelled at.

This meant that whilst his natural strength did provide him with a significant advantage, he did also have the skill, flexibility and finesse required to succeed at the more complex Olympic lifts, and would prove this with several national championship wins in weightlifting and even a world championship in powerlifting.

What made this even more impressive is that for most of his competitive career, he lifted without supportive equipment such as weightlifting belts.

However, as a powerlifter, he was perhaps best known for the two weightlifting events he arguably underachieved at, which were unfortunately the highest level of competition.

What Happened To Mark Henry At The Olympic Games?

Mark was just 19 years old when he qualified for the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, breaking several junior American Records with just eight weeks of training in a discipline that usually takes years to perfect.

As a superheavyweight in the 110kg class, he finished tenth with an excellent total of 377.5kg against ferocious competition despite his limited experience.

This, alongside his excellent form in national and intercontinental weightlifting, as well as the lesser influence of the infamously successful Soviet Weightlifting team, meant that Mr Henry stood a serious chance of coming close to a medal in Atlanta in 1996.

He was the captain of the weightlifting team and perhaps the most famous American weightlifter in decades, but unfortunately, he would become the victim of profoundly bad luck.

He suffered a back injury early in the competition, but managed to successfully avoid bombing out, lifting 175kg on the snatch and 202.5kg on the clean and jerk.

He maintained competitive form, but a confluence of circumstances would stop him from avenging his unfortunate form at the 1996 Olympics.

Part of the reason for this was his frustration at systemic issues with weightlifting at the time, vowing not to return to weightlifting until he was sure that the sport was free from performance-enhancing drugs.

The other, bigger reason was that his pre-Olympic performance had gotten him noticed by the World Wrestling Federation, which would sign him as a professional wrestler with the ring moniker of “World’s Strongest Man” Mark Henry.

Whilst he has no experience whatsoever in wrestling, he was signed to a ten-year deal, which gave him time to transition his career as well as three months off each year to actively train for competitions.

Eventually, the touring commitments of the WWF (later WWE) would force him to transition to becoming a full-time wrestler, eventually winning a world championship. He was perhaps most famous for successfully tricking an entire crowd into thinking he was retiring whilst wearing a salmon pink jacket in 2013.

As a weightlifter, his career was filled with what-ifs, and one particularly huge question.

Was Mark Henry The World’s Strongest Man?

As a wrestler, he was billed as the World’s Strongest Man, but despite his poor Olympic record, he is one of the few weightlifters in history with a legitimate claim to that record.

Part of it was his phenomenal record in national competitions and at the Pan-American Games, as well as being able to lift the Apollon’s Wheels and Thomas Inch Dumbbell.

He still holds the record for the heaviest squat, deadlift and weight total according to the World Drug-Free Powerlifting Federation, and nobody has lifted as much on all five competitive lifts (squat, deadlift, benchpress in powerlifting, and the snatch and clean and jerk in weightlifting).

Experts in weightlifting have since claimed that he is the world’s strongest man, who is confirmed to have never taken performance-enhancing drugs, and given that he effectively retired by the age of 25 when many weightlifters reach their prime, his potential was astonishing.