LOUIS CYR
Louis Cyr
One of Louis Cyr's Famous Back-lifts
Louis Cyr - Oldtime Canadian Strongman
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Quebec, Canada has a long history of famous strongmen but the strongest and most famous is undoubtedly Louis Cyr.
From the age of 12, Louis laid the foundation for his great strength by working in an
lumber camp during the winters and on the family's farm the rest of the year.
Even back then he impressed his fellow workers with his prodigious feats of strength.
In 1878, the Cyr family immigrated to Lowell, Massachusetts in the United States.
At seventeen years of age, he weighed 230 pounds (104 kg) and a year later, entered his first strongman contest in Boston (which he won by lifting a horse off the ground.)
Back in Montreal in March of 1886, Cyr entered a strongman competition in Quebec City against the reigning Canadian strongman David Michaud.
During the competition, Cyr lifted a 218-pound (99 kg) barbell with one hand (to Michaud's 158 pounds) and a weight of 2,371 pounds (1076 kg) on his back,
to his opponent's 2,071 pounds (940 kg).
Cyr finally lifted an unweildy granite boulder weighing 480 lbs (which Michaud failed to budge)
to win the title of Strongest man in the country.
Cyr's other well-documented strength feats include:
Back-lifting a platform holding 18 men (and later 4,337 pounds)
Lifting a 500-pound (227 kg) weight with one finger
Pushing a freight car up an incline
A bent-press of 273 pounds (besting Eugen Sandow's then-record mark)
Lifted 525 Pounds on a dumbbell with a 1.5" handle )
Restrained four horses - two pulling in each direction, in the human-chain feat
On May 7, 1896 Louis Cyr is credited with the following lifts:
Hand and Thigh Lift: 1897 lbs.
One Hand Jerk Push: 254 lbs.
One Arm Jerk of 132 lbs. for 36 reps
Crucifix hold:
Right hand: 94 lbs.
Left Hand 88 lbs.
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Cyr returned to Canada in March 1892, where he and fellow strongman (and protoge') Horace Barre signed a one-year contract with the Ringling Brothers Circus of the United States.
Louis Cyr had a standing challenge of $25,000 for anyone who could duplicate any of his feats - needless to say the money was never in danger, no one ever came close.
A few years later, in 1894, the two men started their own circus, which featured athletes, jugglers, acrobats, and strongmen performances. The Cyr-Barre Circus
performed on Canadian and American stages for five years.
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