Near Tragedy: When Bill Kazmaier Almost Killed O.D Wilson at the 1989 Pure Strength Contest

Remember that time Franco Columbu broke his leg carrying a refrigerator on his back? Pepperidge Farms remembers…

I love strongman and strongwoman festivals. If you have been on this website for more than five minutes, this much is clear. I also love how chaotic and unorganised early strongman shows were. From heavy deadlifts with blocks of cheese to squatting playboy bunnies, the sport has had some downright silly moments. It has also had some downright dangerous ones too.

Modern fans know this. Over the past decade, we have seen serious bone breaks and athletes collapsing under the weight of… well, the weights they lift. The sport has, I would argue, largely become professionalized and the injuries we see in elite shows are comparable to those one would see in Olympic weightlifting or powerlifting i.e. they are the result of ill-luck on the part of the athlete. Occasionally, however, they are the result of organisers not thinking through their events.

One of the most famous examples of this came in the first ever World Strongest Man show hosted in 1977 which saw famous bodybuilder, and Mr. Olympia winner, Franco Columbu, horribly break his leg while carrying a refrigerator on his back. It remains one of the worst injuries televised in the sport and was largely the result of organisers not fully appreciating the safety risks. Strength historian and strongman organiser Terry Todd later noted his own objections to the event, telling the contest organisers that a flat surface, as opposed to an include, may lead to injuries.

They did not listen and Franco paid a cost. The sport has not, touch wood, ever experienced a high profile fatality during a competition. But it very nearly did. In 1989 American strongman, and three-time World Strongest Man winner, Bill Kazmaier inadvertantly dropped a 200 lb. barrell from a height, on top of fellow strongman O’D Wilson. Kazmaeir nearly killed O’D and bizarrely, I have rarely, if ever seen this mentioned.

So today we are going to look at the competition and its context before examining the shocking turn of events.

Where did this happen?

The incident took place at a Pure Strength contest in 1989. Now the Pure Strength contest was itself a remarkable competition which I’ll eventually do an article on. The first Pure Strength show came in 1987, effectively as a replacement for that year’s World Strongest Man show. For reasons I have not yet uncovered, no WSM show was held that year so, stepping into the void, Pure Strength emerged. More than that, the inaugural 1987 Pure Strength show featured just three athletes, Jon Pall Sigmarsson, Bill Kazmaier and Geoff Capes. These three men had dominated the WSM during the 1980s and Kazmaier’s inclusion, in particular, made it a much watch event.

As I noted elsewhere, Kaz was arguably the sport’s first dominant celebrity. Winning the WSM three years in a row from 1980 to 1982, Kaz was not invited back to another show until 1988. During his absence Capes, and then Sigmarsson, took the title. A Kaz, Capes and Sigmarrson competition thus promised a sort of dream match up between the new champions and the outsed king. And while Sigmarrson won the title in 1987, Kaz returned the following year in 1988 to win it. In 1989 and then again in 1990 (the last year of the Contest), it was re-envisioned as a team event.

Thus rather than pitting individual athletes against each other, the Contest pitted nations against each other. For 1989 it was America, Britain, Holland and Iceland competitng for the podium.

What Happened?

At the outset I will say this show had some legtimately clever and unique contests. For a static shoulder hold, teammembers held onto swords with a chalice balanced between them. When one sword dropped, so would the chalice. There was also log cutting and a sort of pressure hold to keep various bricks together. Just fun and different.

The near miss/potential manslaughter, occured during the ‘weighting game’ wherein athletes had to carry a variety of barrells and other implements about 50 metres up a hill to a Castle. Think a series of loaded carries against time done in a free-for-all. The American team of Bill Kazmaeir and O’D Wilson (one of my favorite strongmen gone too soon), faced off against their Icelandic counterparts. For whatever reason Kaz and O’D decided to play physically. Moments before the Kaz incident O’D was filmed body-checking one of the Icelandic strongmen.

Next O’D powered up a hill with a 200 lbs. barrell on his back, accidentally tripped and dropped the barrell to a lower court. As Kaz followed he decided to knock his opponents barrell from his shoulders. The barrell dropped from a height into the lower court, narrowly missing O’D’s head. In a subsequent interview, O’D credits a stranger screaming ‘look out’ with saving his life. It is not an exaggeration and was far more serious than the broadcast made out.

Look for yourselves around the 30:55 mark below.

Were There Any Consequences?

Not that I can find.The Kaz/O’D team scored zero points for the event but still won the overall title and Kaz was welcomed back the following year. For me, as both fan and historian, I think it shows how potentially dangerous strongman can be and, more importantly, how critically important it is to have rivalries which do not bleed into physicality. When goliaths capable of throwing heavy weights around butt heads, disaster ensues.

Here’s hoping this year’s World Strongest Man show is more sanitised.

As always… Happy Lifting!