Athletes Banned from WSM?

[Ryan Bracewell]

From Ironmind (http://ironmind.com/ironmind/opencms/Articles/2012/Feb/WSM_Ban_for_all_WSF-ASF_Competitors.html)

The headline might read like alphabet soup, but IronMind is recommending that IMG ban from the World’s Strongest Man (WSM) contest anyone who competes in a WSF or ASF strongman contest—not to punish the athletes, of course, but rather to send a clear message to the WSF and ASF that infringing on the World’s Strongest Man trademark will not be tolerated by IMG.

It began with releases describing the just-completed WSF strongman contest in Abu Dhabi as being the World’s Strongest Man contest, and in addition to using that name, the promotional materials featured photos taken at the 2011 World’s Strongest Man contest.

IMG developed and first produced the World’s Strongest Man contest in 1977, creating not just a commercially successful TV property, but also a new sports-entertainment product category.

The WSF’s Vlad Redkin was notified of this infringement by IMG, and he said that he was not using either the World’s Strongest Man name or logo, and IronMind speculated that the mixup might have stemmed from a mistranslation of ASF language. Redkin told IronMind that the ASF was innocent and the offending material disappeared.

Today, however, the misrepresentations have resurfaced in full force, so now it’s time to check whether the WSF and ASF claims of innocence are genuine.

IronMind recommends that IMG give Vlad Redkin (speaking for WSF) and Omid Amiri (speaking for ASF) 24 hours to publicly renounce the statements that misrepresented their contest held in Abu Dhabi as being WSM and that within 48 hours, Messrs. Redkin and Amiri must ensure that gulfnews.com, sport360.com and emirates247.com, as well as other websites to be named by IMG, publish similar corrections.

Failure to meet these conditions will result a WSM ban for all WSF and ASF competitors, along with whatever other sanctions and claims IMG is pursuing relative to the organizers.

[Ironman19871]

If whole top 5 2011 WSM finishers competed in the Dubai contest they would not be threatening WSM athlete bans...would they?

How shitty of them to go after the WSF/ASF THROUGH the athletes. If IMG is soooo concerned with protecting WSM, then why did they air 2011 WSM Finals at 11pm(where I live) on a shitty weekend? At least someone is willing to give these amazing athletes a place to compete AND make a little money.

[Ryan Bracewell]

The article reads kind of weird. I cant figure out if WSM has any part of this article or if its just Ironmind saying what they think should be done? Im sure time will tell.

Regardless, I think it would be shitty to ban the athletes after they have already competed. In the past, the athlete would get a warning before the contest took place saying they will be in trouble if they compete in "x" federation, but you cant do that shit after the fact. WSM does not have enough contests or have the athletes under year round contract, so i dont think its fair to try and keep them from competing at any other contest, regardless of name.

[Bryan Hildebrand]

its written kinda strange. almost as if the article itself was translated. several of their articles clearly are written by someone who english is their second language.

I guess my question is why does Ironmind, if I am reading the article correctly, have an opinion over what IMG does or doesnt do? here is the WSF article in the local Abu Dhabi news:

http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/world-strongmans-pulling-power-hits-abu-dhabi

ABU DHABI // Kevin Nee is the type of chap who likes to keep a close check on his daily intake of calories - up to 10,000 of them.
Topic.



Kevin also likes to pull fire engines, but he has his reasons. He wants one day to be recognised as the world's strongest man.
In Abu Dhabi yesterday at least he made the top nine, in the WSF World Strongman Championship.
"What it really goes back to is just like the natural urge to be the strongest," said Kevin, 26, an American who weighs 135 kilograms but can lift 410.
"I mean, you look back in history to the Highland games and men were just throwing rocks to see who could throw the rocks the furthest. It's a natural high."
In the last of three days of competition in the capital yesterday, 25 finalists from 23 countries had been whittled down to nine.
The contestants had to strap on a harness with a rope attached to a 7.5-tonne lorry and pull the vehicle - driver, prayer beads and all - 20 metres while under the stopwatch. Kevin achieved that in 47.64 seconds.
That was one of five events that also included a race to flip 320kg tractor tyres, and the "farmer's walk", a sprint carrying two 160kg weights.
In the end, the title and US$6,000 (Dh22,000) first prize was won by Krzysztof Radzikowski of Poland, with the Briton Laurence Shahlaei, in second ($4,000) and the American Josh Thigpen third ($3,000).
Kevin, who dines freely on McDonald's and chocolate, is fanatical about not losing weight.
At the age of 13, he started to spend time in the gym and hang out with a local strongman.
When Kevin turned 15 his friend and mentor, Bruce Tessier, a corrections officer at a prison, had him entered into a local competition.
Kevin is still considered a baby in the sport, where many men reach their peak between 32 and 35 - if they are not injured.
"These are the toughest guys in the world, here in Abu Dhabi," said Ahmed Hassani, 21, an Emirati volunteer and former strongman who switched to boxing after an injury.
"This tournament is a tremendous thing."
The strongman event has its roots in Nordic and Highland games. In fact, the men identify themselves more with Vikings than conventional athletes.
"It's something different than just going to the gym and lifting weights," said the Australian Marc Wells, who at 182 centimetres and 138kg calls himself a "lightweight".
Marc, who was competing internationally for the first time, has pulled tractors, buses, semi-trailers and regularly pulls 4x4s with their brakes on.
But he said he had a simple regimen of three days a week at the gym and "a couple of hours" of strongman training on Saturday.
"No point in overdoing it, otherwise you get tired pretty quickly," Marc said.
The stadium began to fill yesterday evening with a crowd that included Abu Dhabi's young western businessmen and Arab grandmothers who cheered for their strongman favourites such as Josh, who was ranked first when yesterday's competition began.
He was a "small, skinny kid" when he saw his first strongman competition on television at the age of 12.
"I said, 'I'm going to be the world's strongest man some day'," Josh said.
Organisers said they would like to return to Abu Dhabi.
"This is the first time we've had this many countries and this is a big step for us," said Vladislav Redkin, the chief organiser of the WSF championship.
"This competition in Abu Dhabi is the biggest and we hope the next one will be even bigger.
"This is a style of life, this is a real style of life."
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[robert da strongman]

IMG should go after the promoters not the athletes. and if they want domination of strongman then the better put on more comps and maybe promote WSM better.

[smj091977]

I agree, ban the athletes! I also am calling for the ban of this 747!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tls-Jli6eQE

[magicmile5]

IMG should go after the promoters not the athletes. and if they want domination of strongman then the better put on more comps and maybe promote WSM better.

I agree. Why punish the athletes after the fact? Maybe give them a warning for the future? But the athletes gotta make money soooo give them more opportunities to do so.

[Steelwolf]

I agree. Why punish the athletes after the fact? Maybe give them a warning for the future? But the athletes gotta make money soooo give them more opportunities to do so.
Agreed here