6000 calories a day to the WSM

I competed in my first strong man contest in 1994 and weighed 119 kilos – which was scrawny when compared to the big boppers, but after spending a fortune on food and following a regimen where I ate every 90 minutes I ballooned to 160 kilos by 1997 . My whole life centred around my next meal, and I wasn’t alone because I quickly learnt my fellow competitors also had monstrous appetites. Looking back on it 20-odd-years later, and there are times I feel physically ill when I remember how much I ate back then, it scares me to think how my digestive system coped. At peak weight I ate 11 meals a day, equating around 6000 calories – which is three times the daily recommended amount for a healthy adult male. I took four tins of creamed rice into work every day and it actually reached the point where I couldn’t bear looking at the stuff, let alone shovel yet another spoonful into my mouth. I also became a pooping machine, and while some of my colleagues took their regular ‘smoko’ breaks to puff on a cigarette, I was taking so many toilet breaks at work I was living proof of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s theory that “what goes in must come out”. My God, it came out! My old meal diary from 1997 documents the carnage, but what I failed to note was the 20-25 Weet-Bix breakfast biscuits I snacked on every day, they were the result of a sponsorship we had with the Sanitarium Health and Well Being Company. I recently read the world record for eating the most Weet-Bix in one sitting is 40 . . . my old self would’ve seen that as child’s play, I could have literary eaten that many – and more – for breakfast! Anyhow, the way I reached 160 kilos was by chowing down and eating like this in conjunction with an extreme training regimen:

Meal 1: A large bowl of oatmeal with banana, honey and blueberries, Large milk coffee

Meal 2: A large protein shake with milk and banana plus 4 slices of bread with peanut butter

Meal 3: First large tin of creamed rice with fruit

Meal 4: Two chicken breasts with pasta and vegetables

Meal 5: Second large tin of creamed rice

Meal 6: Large protein shake with milk; fruit; two slices of bread

Meal 7: Third large tin of creamed rice

Meal 8: A large steak, vegetables and bread

Meal 9: A large bowl of muesli with yoghurt and fruit

Meal 10: Fourth tin of creamed rice but with ice-cream and fruit

Meal 11: Large protein shake with milk

By 1998 I had slimed down to 150 kilograms as the added weight was impacting my joints and mobility. I won the title as Australia’s Strongest Man and that earnt me my passage to the World’s Strongest Man competition in 1998. However, as I would regularly experience, I injured myself in the lead up and had to withdraw. Come the following year though I was in good shape and again was invited to compete in the 1999 WSM. It was an incredible opportunity and privilege to lock horns with the big names and by now whom I called friends including Sweden’s defending champion Magnus Sameulsson; Finland’s Jouko Ahola and Janne Virtanen as well as the charismatic Norwegian, Svend Karlson, who’d yell ‘Viking Power!’ at the top of his voice during the competition.

The 1999 World’s Strongest Man competition that was held in Malta and not long after collecting my athlete’s ID the event’s medical staff asked me to provide them with a full and detailed list of the ‘stuff’ I was ‘on’, so I proceeded to rattle off the litany of legal nutrients and supplements that were a part of my daily existence. One of the medicos must’ve thought I was worried about possible recriminations for coming clean about any dirty little secrets; after all, I weighed well over 140 kilos and looked BIG. However, it hurt when my suspicions that he thought I’d used illegal chemicals to build up my body were confirmed because he interrupted me by saying: ‘No, no, no; you don’t understand. We only test for recreational drugs, but it’s important that we know the steroids you’re on’. The question threw me, and I’m sure I bristled because even these days as someone who competes in the over-50 age group in master’s athletic events around the world, I pride myself on being as clean as a whistle – and I always have. As a police officer and an athlete, it’s in my DNA to be anti-drugs, regardless of whether it’s cocaine, methamphetamines, heroin or the performance enhancing variety which includes anabolic steroids, androstenedione, human growth hormone, erythropoietin, diuretics and stimulants. I know there is a school of thought that athletes also enhance their performance by taking dietary supplements, carb-loading or by training at altitude, but doping has always seemed in my opinion to be the domain of the cheat; the people who steal the glory of winning a gold medal or a championship title despite knowing in their heart of hearts that they needed that edge over the athletes who are otherwise better than them.

I was so excited to be competing against the world’s elite strongman and knew that making the final would be extremely difficult for me given the calibre of athletes.

I set a realistic goal of finishing in the top 3 in my heat and if I could win one event then I’d achieved my goal. Unfortunately, the injury demon was once again on my shoulder. Competing in the multi load event I bent down to pick up the 100 kg sack which I had to carry back to an elevated platform and repeat 5 times. On the third sack I felt a pop in my hamstring. I knew immediately I’d torn it having experienced the feeling during my rugby, athletics and bobsleigh careers. This time however, I would carry on as I did not know if I’d ever have an opportunity again to compete at this level. I injured my right hamstring in the lift and load event, and it impacted on my performance. The medical staff attempted to convince me to stop, but I wasn’t having it, so I continued.

When I faced off against Samuelsson in the ‘crucifix hold’ event, you can see on the video that’s been posted on YouTube that even though I was heavily strapped I struggled to climb onto the platform before holding two concrete pillars which each weighed 175 kilos in a timed event, he who held longest won. Grip strength had been one of my mainstays of strongman, so I knew I had a chance of top 3. I was acutely aware of the pain I was about to experience and had prepared to push through it, like I was with my hamstring injury. While it was all deadly serious there was still opportunities for sportsmanship because I remember hearing before we were to compete that Samuelsson didn’t have chalk to cover his hands in. The chalk absorbs the sweat and that would allow for the competitors to get a better hold on the stirrup-shaped grips we used to keep the pillars upright, so I shared mine with the Swede knowing it could help him attain a victory over me, but if I wanted to beat him I wanted to do it fair and square. We competed at the 5000-year-old UNESCO recognised Megalithic Temples of Malta, which are among the world’s most ancient religious sites, and I don’t think the ruins had seen anything quite like it when me and the others gripped the pillars for as long as possible. I was the first up and as the television commentators spoke about ‘how the pillars tested the ‘strength, stamina and character’ of the competitors, and that my giant hands gave me an advantage in the event, I could hear my then 7 year-old daughter Emily screaming her support from the crowd. I wanted to make her proud of her dad and discarded all other sounds except her tiny voice bellowing from the warmup tent. The command come was given by chief referee Dougie Edmonds, in his heavy Scottish brogue to…. “Take your grip”. I tightened my fingers around the metal handle, squeezed my back and shoulder muscles to take the strain. I could feel the weight kicking in and it felt like I was being stretched in half, the tension was enormous. I looked straight ahead focusing on a point beyond the crowd, the cameras, the sound guys and producers. I mentally took myself to a ‘happy place’ I’d pre-determined, sunk my body in an attempt to absorb the feeling of being torn apart. The sweat was pouring down my face, the sunglasses I was wearing were fogging up. 20 seconds felt like hours and the pain was building, my chest, shoulders and back were screaming at me to stop. I could feel my hands being ripped to pieces with skin being shredded from my hands. I pushed through 30 seconds hoping to hit 40 seconds. Magnus had let his grip go and I knew I had beaten him. I managed to hold them for 37.8 seconds. I then watched, and held my breath, as the other four tried to better it. The Scotsman Jamie Barr let go after 34.53 seconds, and while he growled like a demon summoning the hounds of hell as he put in an almighty effort, Samuelsson let go after 36.49 second and by doing so handed me the six competition points as that events winner. I

Although I didn’t qualify for the finals because I didn’t finish in the top 10, but in terms of the World Strongest Man competition, I consider winning ‘the crucifix hold’ as a clean competitor was my gold medal and have always cherished what I achieved in the face of personal adversity.