Impressions of Northern Athletes and Athletics

John O’Groat Journal , Friday 17 January 1913 A question that attracted great interest some years ago, and has continued to do so, more or less, from that time is, “Who is the strongest man on earth?” About twenty years ago [November 1889] Chas. Sampson appeared at the now defunct [London] Aquarium, and his performances gave rise to lengthy discussions as to this question, more particularly as the efforts to settle it were inefficacious, each candidate having his own method of strength-testing. Sampson, however, was beaten by Sandow practically at his own game, and Sandow was afterwards beaten by, not conclusively, by Louis M’Cann. Since then there have been several claimants to the title of the world’s strongest man, Arthur Saxon, of Leipsic [Leipzig], being probably the best known. Of late years his astonishing lifts have established his pre-eminence as a weight-lifter, as the following interesting records show:- Some Astonishing Feats of Strength. At the Achilles Athletic Club, Dresden, Saxon performed a double-handed lift of 448 lbs. [203.21 kg]– exactly four hundredweights, weights to be got up anyhow, provided the body is erect and the arms straight overhead at the end of the lift. At Professor Sazalay’s School, London, Saxon lay prone on his back [this is an error – Saxon lay supine. Had Saxon been prone, he would have been lying face-down - PR] and brought over his forehead on to his chest with both hands a bar-bell weighing 386 lbs. [175.09kg], which he pressed to arms’ length. He has thrown from one hand to the other overhead a bell of 315 lbs. [142.88kg], and has jerked 311 lbs. [141.07 kg] from shoulders, lowered to back of neck, and again jerked overhead. Undoubtedly his greatest feat was that of pressing single-handed overhead a bar-bell weighing no less than 370 lbs. [167.83 kg]. This is about 100 lbs. [45.34 kg] more than any other man has lifted in this style. It has been erroneously argued that Saxon is a one-handed lifter, but even conceding the accuracy of the figures attributed to the other athletes, it does not prove them to be superior all-round lifters to Saxon. Donald Dinnie Delighted The Frenchman, Pierre Bonnes, certainly won a big competition at Paris some time ago, accomplishing some splendid all-round lifting, but few, if any, of his feats were world’s records. It may be mentioned that Bonnes was incredulous as to Saxon’s lifts until he saw the latter perform. Our own veteran, Donald Dinnie, was also sceptical, and for some time disbelieved that Saxon’s strength could be compared with Louis Cyr’s. One day Saxon called upon Donald, who had a short, awkward bell weighing about 230 lbs. [104.33 kg] Saxon requested him to tie a 56 lb. [25.40 kg] weight to it, and, this done, the leader of the famous Saxon trio pressed the total