Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson

Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson (transliterated as Hafthor in English; born 26 November 1988) is an Icelandic professional strongman who is widely regarded as one of the greatest strength athletes of all time.

He is the first and only person to have won the Arnold Strongman Classic, the Europe's Strongest Man, and the World's Strongest Man competitions in the same calendar year and holds numerous Strongman titles from multiple strength federations, including multiple world records.

With 30 international competition wins, he is the third most decorated strongman in history, behind Lithuania's Žydrūnas Savickas and Poland's Mariusz Pudzianowski, and in terms of pure brute strength, many strength analysts and strongman experts regard Hafþór as "the strongest man to have ever lived".

Hafþór has also appeared on television as an actor, portraying "The Mountain" Ser Gregor Clegane in the HBO series Game of Thrones for five seasons.

He is often simply referred to as "Thor" or "the Mountain", the latter due to his Game of Thrones character and his own massive size.

In March 2023, Hafþór was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame.

Hafþór was born on 26 November 1988 in Reykjavík, Iceland.

When he was eleven years old, his family moved to Kópavogur.

He received his primary education at Grundaskóli and then Hjallaskóli hill school, but due to high levels of energy as a child, he had difficulty sitting in a classroom or concentrating on his studies.

As a student at the polytechnic school in Breiðholt, he was enthusiastic about sports and played soccer and did gymnastics, before discovering his passion for basketball in eighth grade.

He was also a chess player, with a Blitz rating of 800.

He also loved playing video games.

A lanky teenager, Hafþór gained size and strength through daily exercise, combining basic movements (push-ups, chin-ups, and sit-ups) with working at his grandfather's farm during summers and lifting natural stones in the wilderness.

His imposing height of 205 cm (6 ft 9 in) is credited to his 203 cm (6 ft 8 in) father, Björn Þor Reynisson, and his mother, Ragnheiður Juliusdottir, who is also of tall stature.

Hafþór's grandfather Reynir Ásgeirsson is also very tall and just as broad across the chest.

Hafþór has two sisters: Bryndís Björg Björnsdóttir and Hafdís Lind Björnsdóttir.

Hafþór began his athletic career as a basketball player, playing as a center with a bodyweight of around 105 kg (231 lb).

He started his senior team career for the Icelandic 1. deild karla club Breiðablik in 2004.

The following season, he transferred to FSu Selfoss, but after about ten games, it was discovered that he had been playing with a broken bone in his ankle and required surgery.

Between 2004 and 2006, Hafþór played 32 games for the Icelandic junior national basketball teams and 8 with Iceland's U-18 national team in Division A of the U18 European Championship.

In May 2004, he won the Nordic championship with the U-16 team.

During the 2004 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship Division B, he helped Iceland achieve promotion to Division A. In 2006, he won the Nordic championship again, this time with the U-18 team.

After recovering from the ankle injury, and inspired by Ronnie Coleman and Dorian Yates, Hafþór trained like a bodybuilder.

One day, when four-time World's Strongest Man champion Magnús Ver Magnússon spotted the twenty-year-old, 6 ft 9 in, 140 kg (308 lb) Hafþór deadlifting in his gym, "Jakaból", he immediately realized his potential as a good prospect for strongman, which paved the way for Hafþór to train with Stefán Sölvi Pétursson, Benedikt Magnússon, Páll Logason, and Ari Gunnarsson.

After recovering, in 2006, Hafþór moved to KR in the Icelandic top-tier Úrvalsdeild.

However, after a screw in his ankle shattered, he had to undergo a second surgery in November, forcing him to miss the rest of the season.

To commence the 2007–2008 season, Hafþór moved back to play for FSu Selfoss and averaged 6.7 points per game, helping the team to achieve a promotion to the Úrvalsdeild.

Unfortunately, the troublesome ankle continued and ultimately forced him to retire from basketball at the age of nineteen, shattering his dream of making it to the NBA one day.

With his newfound friendships and guidance, Hafþór progressed in the sport and went on to win several strongman contests in Iceland multiple times from 2009 onwards, including Westfjord's Viking, Eastfjord Strongman Championships, Highland Viking, Iceland's Strongest Viking, OK Badur Strongman Championships, Akranes Strength Challenge, and Strongest Man in Iceland.

After placing third behind his friends Pétursson and Magnússon in 2010, Hafþór won his first Iceland's Strongest Man title (Iceland's most prestigious) in 2011, becoming the ninth Icelander to win the title since its inception, in 1985.

The following year, while training at the "Strongman Base" gym, Hafþór was nicknamed Ljónið (the Lion) by Stefán Sölvi Pétursson, because he continuously grew bigger and got stronger, eventually reaching his heaviest body weight ever, of 210 kg (463 lb), in 2012.

After placing fifth and fourth in 2012 and 2013, respectively, Hafþór won the 2014 Europe's Strongest Man competition in Leeds, organized by Giants Live.

During the competition, after setting a new world record in the Atlas stones event, he famously answered the reporter, "I'm the future of strength, and I'm king of the stones!"

From 2013 to 2015, he competed prolifically (up to fourteen competitions in a single year) throughout many Grand Prix competitions in Germany, Netherlands, Finland, Norway, Serbia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Latvia, Russia, China, Malaysia, and Brazil, winning eight international titles, three silver medals, and two bronze medals.

In January 2015, at the World's Strongest Viking competition, held in Norway, Hafþór carried a 10 m, 650 kg log for five steps, thus breaking a legendary 1,000-year-old record, set by Orm Storolfsson.

Hafþór successfully defended his title in 2015, but in 2016, despite doing well in other events, he made a mistake at the car walk by gripping the apparatus from the center instead of the sides, which compromised his balance; he eventually lost the title to Englishman Laurence Shahlaei.

He regained it in 2017, after an iconic battle with Eddie Hall, and famously answered Bill Kazmaier, "This is not a beauty contest, this is Strongman!"

His winning streak continued, and in August 2020, Hafþór won the Iceland's Strongest Man for the tenth consecutive time.

Hailing from its IFSA roots, the Strongman Champions League organized several Grand Prix events, which attracted many athletes from around the world.

It gave Hafþór the opportunity for international exposure, competing against the best strongmen in the world.