Bill Lyndon (born 30 January 1964) is an Australian former

strongman Strongman is a competitive strength sport which tests athletes' physical strength and endurance through a variety of heavy lifts and events. Strongman competitions are known for their intensity, pushing athletes to their physical and mental limit ...

competitor. Lyndon is a 5-time winner of Australia's Strongest Man, and a 4-time entrant to the

World's Strongest Man The World's Strongest Man is an international strongman competition held every year. Organized by American event management company IMG, a subsidiary of Endeavor, it is broadcast in the US during summers and in the UK around the end of Decemb ...

competition.

Early years

Bill Lyndon was born in Melbourne, Australia. He was one of seven children having five sisters and a brother. He was educated at high school in Melbourne and went on to business college, afterwards becoming a

structural engineer Structural engineers analyze, design, plan, and research List of structural elements, structural components and structural systems to achieve design goals and ensure the safety and comfort of users or occupants. Their work takes account mainly of ...

. A keen sportsman, he played a variety of sports including

Australian Rules Football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

American Football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

Rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

cycling Cycling, also known as bicycling or biking, is the activity of riding a bicycle or other types of pedal-driven human-powered vehicles such as balance bikes, unicycles, tricycles, and quadricycles. Cycling is practised around the world fo ...

and from the age of 23,

powerlifting Powerlifting is a competitive strength athletics, strength sport that consists of three attempts at maximal weight on three lifts: Squat (exercise), squat, bench press, and deadlift. As in the sport of Olympic weightlifting, it involves the athle ...

. His rugby league led him to spend two seasons in

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

and as a powerlifter he won four national powerlifting titles. Interview with Bill Lyndon on Samson-Power.com, 27 January 2000
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Strongman career

In terms of strongman competition his international career began after he was invited to

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

for the 1993

World Muscle Power Classic The World Muscle Power Classic (WMPC) (sometimes known as the World Muscle Power Championships) was one of the most enduring annual strongman competitions, running for twenty years and in that time attaining the position of the second most prestig ...

. Some of Bill's competitors in this contest included: Gary Taylor, Manfred Hoeberl, Wayne Price,

Magnus Ver Magnusson Magnus, meaning "Great" in Latin, was used as cognomen of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus in the first century BC. The best-known use of the name during the Roman Empire is for the fourth-century Western Roman Emperor Magnus Maximus. The name gained wid ...

(referred to as "Maggie" by Lyndon) and Forbes Cowan. Although Lyndon did not feature among the contenders he found the experience of being around such renowned strongmen a rewarding one. The 1993 World's Strongest Man competition was held in

Orange, France Orange (; Provençal: ''Aurenja'' or ''Aurenjo'' ) is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southeastern France. It is about north of Avignon, on the departmental border with Gard, which follows ...

and Lyndon was considered for the last spot but Harold "Iron Bear" Collins was chosen that year. The following year, another triumph in Australia's Strongest Man secured Lyndon a spot at the 1994 World's Strongest Man contest, but failed to make the finals. Nathan Jones won the Australian title in 1995 and got the place at

1995 World's Strongest Man The 1995 World's Strongest Man was the 18th edition of World's Strongest Man and was won by Magnus Ver Magnusson from Iceland, it was his second consecutive and third overall title. Gerrit Badenhorst from South Africa finished second after finish ...

contest, where his arm was broken in an armwrestling match in the heats with

1998 World's Strongest Man The 1998 World's Strongest Man was the 21st edition of World's Strongest Man and was won by Magnus Samuelsson from Sweden. It was his first title after finishing third the previous year. 1997 champion Jouko Ahola from Finland finished second, and ...

champion

Magnus Samuelsson Magnus Samuelsson (born December 21, 1969), is a Sweden, Swedish actor, former Strongman and the 1998 World's Strongest Man. Known as the 'king of the stones', he made it to the World's Strongest Man podium 5 times and the finals 10 times. The ...

. Lyndon went on to compete at the

1996 World's Strongest Man The 1996 World's Strongest Man was the 19th edition of World's Strongest Man and was won by Magnús Ver Magnússon from Iceland. This was Magnús' fourth WSM title, tying the record of fellow Icelander Jón Páll Sigmarsson. Riku Kiri from Finl ...

1997 World's Strongest Man The 1997 World's Strongest Man was the 20th edition of World's Strongest Man and was won by Jouko Ahola from Finland. It was his first title. Flemming Rasmussen from Denmark finished second after finishing fourth the previous year, and Magnus Samu ...

and

qualifying heats, but he was never able to qualify for the finals. In 1999, when the IFSA was still running WSM, Manfred Hoeberl set up a rival AFSA organization. Lyndon joined this and as such was banned by IFSA. Lyndon's decision was swayed by the fact that he was not getting enough competitions via IFSA. In 1998 he had only competed in

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

and

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

, whereas the AFSA offered five competitions in the first year.

Retirement

In the late 1990s Bill looked towards his own Australian based sports promotion company. He formed 'Spartan Warriors Australia' and began advertising extensively in magazines and at public events, He later started a website called Aussie Power designed to cover and feature many diverse athletes from strongman, powerlifters, olympic lifters, throwers covering Australia and the Asia Pacific region.

Personal Records

* Squat - 265 kg (583 lbs.) *

Bench press The bench press or chest press is a weight training exercise where a person presses a weight upwards while lying horizontally on a weight training bench. The bench press is a Compound movements, compound movement, with the primary muscles involved ...

- 212 kg (466.4 lbs.) *

Deadlift The deadlift is a strength training exercise in which a weight-loaded barbell is lifted off the ground to the level of the hips, with the torso perpendicular to the floor, before being placed back on the ground. It is one of the three powerlifting ...

- 310 kg (682 lbs.) *

Military press The overhead press, also known as the shoulder press, strict press or military press, is an upper-body weight training exercise in which the trainee presses a weight overhead while seated or standing. It is mainly used to develop the anterior del ...

- 145 kg (319 lbs.)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lyndon, Bill Living people Australian strength athletes 1964 births Australian powerlifters Sportspeople from Melbourne