2009 World's Strongest Man
| Host city |
 Valletta
|
|---|---|
| Winner |
 Žydrūnas Savickas
|
| Nations participating | 17 |
| Athletes participating | 30 |
The World's Strongest Man 2009 was the 32nd edition of World's Strongest Man and took place in Valletta, Malta from 26 September to 3 October 2009. It was sponsored by PartyPoker.com. It was anticipated by the strength athletics world as promising to be "the best one yet." The anticipation was based on the organisers ensuring invites were made to "every top athlete in the world" regardless of their affiliation to any particular strength athletics body. In previous years, the schism between the International Federation of Strength Athletes and the organisers of WSM had meant that certain athletes were forbidden to compete, undermining the credentials of the competition.
The official qualifying competition for the 2009 WSM was the newly created Giants Live tour. This had taken the place of the World's Strongest Man Super Series, although the latter continued to run with a separate pool of athletes. However, the weakening of the IFSA, due to the economic pressures affecting the whole of the strength athletics world at this time, had led to the breaking down of barriers between the various concurrent circuits. Strength athletes were able to compete in more than one circuit and did so, with a cross over of athletes between the Giants Live circuit, the Strongman Champions League and the Strongman Super Series. In an interview with Ironmind, a source close to the WSM decision makers said, "World’s Strongest Man has never stopped the world’s best strongmen from going to WSM and now that the world of strongman is getting much closer, it appears that we will be able to have every top athlete in the world there [this year]." This led to Ironmind stating that the World’s Strongest Man 2009 promises to be the best one yet. Such is the status of WSM that Ironmind also stated that "If you are a leading strongman competitor, or want to be recognized as one, the most important thing at this point is to get an invitation to the 2009 World’s Strongest Man contest."
This ethos led to a mixture of qualifying criteria applied. Mariusz Pudzianowski qualified, by virtue of being the defending WSM champion. A further eight competitors were selected based on their showing on Giants Live (Brian Shaw; Derek Poundstone; Travis Ortmayer; Mikhail Koklyaev (injured so did not compete); Richard Skog; Mark Felix; Jarek Dymek; and Stefan Solvi Petursson). In addition “the top five from Strongman Champions League were taken into account”, in a deal struck with the relatively new organisation which had already made deals with such high profile tournaments as Fortissimus. The IMG committee also developed a list of wild card invitations. This gave them the flexibility to invite the very top athletes in the world who were not part of the official qualifying tour, or subsequent agreements with other bodies. Through this avenue the great Zydrunas Savickas, six time winner of the Arnold's Strongest Man, IFSA World Champion, and Fortissimus winner, deemed by many as the strongest man in the world in terms of his ability to lift massive weights, was invited. Also, those who performed well in the revamped Strongman Super Series also received invites as well as podium finishers in certain one off events.
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