b. 1974
Vasyl Virastiuk
Strongman, World's Strongest Man
Five trams weighing 101.5 tonnes in all: that is the load Vasyl Virastiuk pulled. A former shot putter from Ivano-Frankivsk, he became the World’s Strongest Man in 2004 and IFSA world champion in 2007. In 2021 he became a member of parliament.
Key accomplishments
- World's Strongest Man title (2004); third place in the same competition in 2003
- IFSA World Champion (2007)
- Ukraine's Strongest Man several times
- Ukrainian records, including towing five trams with a combined weight of 101.5 metric tons
- Honorary president of the Strongman Federation of Ukraine
A hundred tonnes on a rope
Picture five trams coupled together, 101.5 tonnes in all. Vasyl Virastiuk pulled them 17.9 metres in under a minute and set a Ukrainian record. It is only one of his strength records.
From the shot put to strongman
Virastiuk was born in 1974 in Ivano-Frankivsk. At ten he took up athletics and the shot put. In 1992 he graduated from the Ivano-Frankivsk College of Physical Education, and in 1994–2000 he worked as an athletics coach and competed for Ukraine’s national team.
In 2000 he switched to strongman, and for several years running he was Ukraine’s strongest man. At World’s Strongest Man he finished third in 2003 and won the title in 2004. In 2007 in Seoul he won the IFSA World Championship. He competed until 2008.
After competing
Virastiuk later became honorary president of the Strongman Federation of Ukraine, acted in films, including Ivan Syla, and coached Ukraine’s team at the Invictus Games, a competition for veterans with combat injuries.
In 2021 he ran for parliament for the Servant of the People party in a by-election in constituency No. 87 in the Ivano-Frankivsk region. The result was fought over in the courts, and only after a Supreme Court ruling did Virastiuk take the oath as a member of the 9th Verkhovna Rada, on 15 June 2021.
Why it matters today
Virastiuk became one of the faces of Ukrainian strongman worldwide: his wins in 2004 and 2007 showed that Ukrainian strongmen could compete with the best.
