Paul Anderson (weightlifter)


Paul Edward Anderson was an American weightlifter, strongman and powerlifter. He was an Olympic gold medalist, a world champion and a two-time national champion in Olympic weightlifting. Anderson contributed significantly to the development of competitive powerlifting.

Early life

Anderson was born in Toccoa, Georgia, the only son of Ethel Bennett and Robert Anderson. As a teenager, he began his early weight training on his own in his family's backyard to increase his size and strength so that he would be able to play on the Toccoa High School football team, where he earned a position as first-team blocking back. He used special homemade weights that his father created out of concrete poured into a wooden form. Anderson later attended Furman University for one year on a football scholarship before moving to Elizabethton, Tennessee with his parents. There he met weightlifter Bob Peoples, who would greatly influence him in squat training and introduce him into weightlifting circles.

Career

In 1955, at the height of the Cold War, Anderson, as winner of the USA National Amateur Athletic Union Weightlifting Championship, traveled to the Soviet Union, where weightlifting was a popular sport, for an international weightlifting competition. In a newsreel of the event shown in the United States the narrator, Bud Palmer, commented as follows: "Then, up to the bar stepped a great ball of a man, Paul Anderson." Palmer said, "The Russians snickered as Anderson gripped the bar which was set at 402.5 pounds, an unheard-of lift. But their snickers quickly changed to awe and all-out cheers as up went the bar and Anderson lifted the heaviest weight overhead of any human in history." "We rarely have such weights lifted," said the solemn Russian announcer as Anderson hoisted in the two-hand press. Prior to Anderson's lift, the Soviet champion, Alexey Medvedev, had matched the Olympic record of the time with a press. Anderson then did a press. At a time when Americans were engaged in a symbolic Cold War battle with the Soviet Union, Anderson's strength — and his singular, tank-like appearance — became a rallying cry to all.
During the 1955 World Championships in Munich, Germany that October, Anderson went on to establish two other world records as he easily won the competition in his weight class to become world champion. Upon his return to the United States, Anderson was received by then Vice-President Richard Nixon, who thanked him for being such a wonderful goodwill ambassador.
In 1956, Anderson won a gold medal in a long, tough duel in the Melbourne, Australia Olympic Games as a weightlifter in the super-heavyweight class with Argentine Humberto Selvetti. The two competitors were tied in the amount of weight lifted, but because Anderson, who weighed in at, was lighter than Selvetti, who weighed, Anderson was awarded the gold medal.
Anderson could not compete in the year 1960 Olympics because he had been ruled a professional for accepting money for some of his weightlifting and strength exhibitions. Thus at the 1960 Olympics the Soviet heavyweight Yury Vlasov bested records set at the 1956 Olympics, with Anderson not competing in the contest. A short time later however, not to be outdone by the Russian and to verify his position as the World's Strongest Man, Anderson lifted the same weight as the Russian three times in quick succession demonstrating unbelievable strength. This feat solidified his position as the most dominant lifter in the world and cemented his legacy as the strongest of the strong.
In 1961, Anderson and his wife Glenda founded the Paul Anderson Youth Home, a home for troubled youth in Vidalia, Georgia. They both helped to build and support the Home with an average of 500 speaking engagements and strength exhibitions per year—notwithstanding the chronic congenital kidney disease that eventually killed him at age 61. He would perform stunts such as hammering a nail with his bare fist and raising a table loaded with eight men onto his back.
The Guinness Book of World Records lists his feat of lifting in a back lift as "the greatest weight ever raised by a human being". Anderson turned professional after the 1956 Summer Olympics, and so many of his feats of strength, while generally credible, were not done under rigorous enough conditions to be official. In fact, there is controversy surrounding the 1985 edition Guinness Book of World Records that cited him for a back lift of 6,270 pounds. The current Guinness record is, set by Gregg Ernst in 1993.

Personal life

In 1960, Anderson married Glenda Garland. The couple were devout Christians. They had a daughter named Paula.
While competing, Anderson weighed between and was tall.

Death

As a child, Anderson suffered from Bright's disease, a kidney disorder, and he eventually died from kidney disease.

Legacy

Anderson's true life testimony can be heard as a dramatization through the Unshackled! radio ministries on program number 2521. Unshackled! has also produced a comic booklet telling the story of Anderson.
Paul Anderson Memorial Park, which features a large statue of him performing an overhead barbell lift, located at the corner of Tugalo Street and Big A Road in Toccoa, is named for him.
In July 2019, an episode of the History Channel show “The Strongest Man in History” featured Paul Anderson and several of his historic feats of strength.

Personal records

Official records

Olympic weightlifting
Done in official competition
Lift included in the Guinness Book of World Records
Powerlifting
Guinness also listed Anderson's best powerlifts
Done in small exhibitions or training
Olympic weightlifting
Best gym lifts
Other lifts
Done in small exhibitions or training