Once in a generation, it has been said, a super-athlete arises whose prowess astonishes the world. Several generations have come and gone, however, since Louis Cyr arose and showed what he could do. Since that time nothing approaching his extraordinary performances has ever been seen.
Louis Cry, French-Canadian, was born in the little hamlet of Saint Jean d’Iberville on October 11, 1863. His father was quite an ordinary man, a humble peasant, nothing above the average physically. His mother, on the other hand, was somewhat outstanding. She weighed, when she was 21, a little under 300 lbs.
Cyr, as a child, soon gave evidence that he was going to take after his maternal parent, so far as bulk and physique were concerned. At the beginning of his teens he was weighing well over 200 lbs., and at that time he was a very shapely fellow. That he was strong with it, too, there is plenty of evidence. At the different tests of strength, usually arranged in the district on “high days and holidays,” he easily excelled everyone.