On Game of Thrones Ser Gregor Clegane, better known as The Mountain, was a massively-sized and notoriously fearsome, violent, and extremely lethal warrior and, in the end presumably died when he and his brother, the Hound, went off the Red Keep stairwell and into the fire below during their final fight. In real life, however, actor Hafthor Julius Bjornsson may not have had to fight his own brother but he did have his World’s Strongest Man title to defend and, unfortunately, that battle was lost as well. Bjornsson lost during the competition’s finals on Sunday in Florida.
Bjornsson, who first won the World’s Strongest Man title last year in the Philippines, lost to Martins Licis of the U.S. Licis, interestingly enough, has a very Game of Thrones-style nickname — The Dragon. Bjornsson ended up taking home the third place bronze trophy. In an interview with the New York Post, Bjornsson explained the work that goes into the competition as well as how happy he was to have been part of Game of Thrones.
“You have to be willing to work 365 days a year and be absolutely obsessed with what you want to achieve, and if you’re willing to go that far then you’re able to be the World’s Strongest Man,” Bjornsson said. “I’m happy I was part of the show. It opened up a lot of other opportunities for me and I’m just grateful for that. I’m doing more acting, but I’m also focusing on strongman. Obviously, my goal is to be back-to-back champion.”
Of course, putting in the work both for World’s Strongest Man and Game of Thrones did present a bit of a challenge. Bjornsson specifically noted the challenges when it came to the type of equipment he needed to train.
“We need very specific equipment to train for World’s Strongest Man and it’s very hard to find this equipment in a normal gym. That’s why I have my own gym back in Iceland,” he said.
Are you surprised Bjornsson lost his World’s Strongest Man title? Let us know in the comments below.
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