He is one of the all time greats in my list. Super underrated strongman he was. When it came to pure static strength no one came close to him during that period.
The thing with Kiri was he never trained the strongman events. Not many did back then, mind you, but he had the opportunity: Jouko Ahola had built selection of event training equipment for himself and kept inviting Kiri to come and train with him. Sometimes Kiri would drop in and say hi, but then just got back to his gym and do powerlifting. In his prime he was close to unbeatable in single day competition, but hitting all that strength into the events led to injuries in WSM, keeping him from the title. Jouko Ahola has said "If I'd had my head and Riku's body, I would have won ten World's Strongest Man titles." I believe him.
Ilkka Nummisto, Riku Kiri and Jouko Ahola were all my childhood heroes. Nummisto lived in the same city as i, when i was a kid i ran in to him multiple times at local sports complex, everytime the guy was super nice and took the time to talk to a 5-7yr old kid asking stupid questions. Thank you for the video man.
I’d throw JF Caron and possibly Lars Hedlund into the mix. Derek was a beast in multiple disciplines related to strength. I think Mark Henry would have been someone to watch as well.
In my opinion also, Riku Kiri is the Strongest Man to not win this particular competition. But he has numerous other international competition wins under his belt (only 9 WSM winners have won more competitions than him). He is one of the statically strongest of all time as well (400 D, 390 S and 302.5 B/ both SM and PL standards). Thank you Strength Universe for doing a great video about him! 💪🏻
@@ronnana694 Thanks buddy, that's a huge compliment! Don't know whether I deserve it. I love Strongman, Powerlifting, Weightlifting, Bodybuilding and Armwrestling the most. In general, I like anything with muscle and strength.
Just read a news arcticle about Riku Kiri. He's now 60, works as a carpenter in his own company and still doing workouts. He encourages people to train legs and is not a fan of people doing bench press with bench shirt.
Riku Kiri is the only person in the world to have be given the title of world's strongest man without actually winning world's strongest man and he deserves every bit of it! Thank you for another amazing video! I'm still going through all your other videos 💪
Great video again, and spot on I cannot disagree with the accolade, certainly at the time he was competing. I feel much the same about Derek Poundstone years later. Thanks for posting
I always thought that guy with the strange name from Finland was phenomenal yet never won it. Working up to 19 hours a day probably was not best for getting quality sleep, recovery time and reducing inflammation. Probably would have been an absolute legend had he not had all those injuries.
It's crazy to think he could of been capable of so much more if he weren't injured and didn't work so many hours. Injury free and 100% time devoted to the sport and he'd be a house hold name in strong man I think
in early 2015 Zydrunas suffered his neck injury at Arnold's and many more after 2016 Arnold's that was no where near his best, 2009-14 is definitely Zydrunas' Peak
They were the two biggest deadlifters back then. Badenhorst edging it slightly. I think with figure of eight straps and a modern suit/bar badenhorst could have pulled 440kg in ‘96. His grip always let him down, he said it was due to an old rugby injury but I think he just had a weak grip. Hence farmers walk was a wasted event for him.
@@H2oo2ze yeah, with a better deadlift he would have actually won. It's also when Mateusz did 320 lbs on the dumbell, and since Haftor had already won at that point he went for 330 just for the show and nearly got it
Jouko Ahola was able to win two titles despite being nowhere near as strong overall as Kiri. Jouko made for himself with his own hands an arsenal of strongman competition cadgets and equipment and trained specifically simulating the events. He had more balanced training routine of gym and the event simulation. That's why he won the titles. If only Kiri trained the events more, he perhaps would of won multiple titles also.
Bad luck, competition injuries and worse technique than others. A certain kind of carelessness and a little arrogant competition? He is our man 🇫🇮. Now working as a Carpenter 61 years old. His own company. And in video his woman competed in body building.
When Riku was a bouncer, two huge guys I know (one of them is unfortunately no longer with us) were going to that bar. There was some misunderstanding, but they were all able to discuss that and Riku let them in. He had a good heart in that job. On the other hand, a friend of mine, who was a successful power lifter in his youth, does not value Mr. Kiri very much. According to him, Kiri used illegal substances to achieve his strength.
"used illegal substances". So do 90% of the competing powerlifters that get any kind of success so why not top-shelf strongmen. And that 90% is on the low, generous end of the scale. I mean i value pure athletes as much as the next guy but even though WADA says something is not ok and still everyone uses in a particular sport, it's okay to use them in a particular sport. This is just my opinion ofcourse...
Some of these events were really not exactly related to pure strength--while form is always important, your form as a competitive pole pusher (giggety) could surpass your strength.
Hii buddy how r u doing? Great video as usual . A video on Riku kiri was long overdue. The strongest guy that has never won the wsm competition while participating has to be anyone between Riku Kiri, Gerrit Badenhorst, Od Wilson, Derek Poundstone and Glenn Ross. Depends what do u mean by strength and what is your criteria to judge pure strength.
I think Gerrit Badenhorst is the strongest never to win it. He had the deadlift world record at one time and had the record for pressing the stone overhead. He had several injuries that kept him from winning. Should do a video on him.
Went back and watched the 1996 wsm final deadlift. Kiri failed 390kg, Magnus mag failed 410kg, badenhorst pulled the 410kg. Maybe kiri was injured but he was always ‘injured’ for wsm.
I met him and chatted a few times when training at ALEXIUM gym Helsinki (mid '90's) ... a thorough and decent gentleman .... but for his ankle injury would certainly have won a world strongman title ! ,,,,,,, my@is only an aka
That was and pretty much still is the culture here. Powerlifter, strongmen, fighters... They work the door. It has started to change towards the PT-business but in a country this small and drinking so much, there's always more need for bouncers than personal trainers😂
Almost 20 years ago there was this online troll that used to always bring up Riku kiri. LOL!! For the record my vote for the strongest never to win the strongest man contest is probably Mikhail Koklyaev or maybe OD Wilson.
His lifts in single ply suites and raw lifts makes current WSM look like school kids , with the amount diet , science , and drug advancements on offer today forget the fact all todays lifters primally rain for those events
I would say it's between 3 people. Kiri, Poundstone and Fleming Rasmussen. Fleming was really close in 97 and dominated the organization that broke away from wsm. He was a fantastic presser and incredibly mobile for a big guy, not the best deadlifter tho.
I can name 3 people stronger than this dude (by numbers and comp performances) just off the top of my head. If you are only looking at retired/past competitors then maybe Big Loz (Lawrence Shahlei)
You can name 3 people who didn’t win the WSM who had close to a 400kg squat and deadlif. bench pressed over 300kg and finished on the podium almost 90% of the competitions they competed in?
Thanks for watching! Where do you rank Riku amoung the greatest of all time?
Riku was LEGIT strong! However he always ran into at least one person who was stronger any given year sadly.
He is one of the all time greats in my list. Super underrated strongman he was. When it came to pure static strength no one came close to him during that period.
Imo you dont always have to Windows first place to be regarded a legend
The thing with Kiri was he never trained the strongman events. Not many did back then, mind you, but he had the opportunity: Jouko Ahola had built selection of event training equipment for himself and kept inviting Kiri to come and train with him. Sometimes Kiri would drop in and say hi, but then just got back to his gym and do powerlifting. In his prime he was close to unbeatable in single day competition, but hitting all that strength into the events led to injuries in WSM, keeping him from the title. Jouko Ahola has said "If I'd had my head and Riku's body, I would have won ten World's Strongest Man titles." I believe him.
Riku Kiri had incredible Bench press sets with 200-220kg in 1994 through 1996 some of them can be found @TH-cam.
Ilkka Nummisto, Riku Kiri and Jouko Ahola were all my childhood heroes. Nummisto lived in the same city as i, when i was a kid i ran in to him multiple times at local sports complex, everytime the guy was super nice and took the time to talk to a 5-7yr old kid asking stupid questions. Thank you for the video man.
Glad you mentioned about Iikka. He was a great strongman.
@@Nirsterkur Yes, and he worked as a janitor.
Could be OD Wilson, could be Derek Poundstone, and could definitely be Riku Kiri. I loved the battles between Riku, Magnus, and Gerit.
And Mateusz Kieliszkowski
And Vytautus Lalas.
I’d throw JF Caron and possibly Lars Hedlund into the mix. Derek was a beast in multiple disciplines related to strength. I think Mark Henry would have been someone to watch as well.
OD did win - he was cheated out of it.
Poundstone was nowhere near the strongest in raw strength.
OD Wilson is definitely in the mix though
In my opinion also, Riku Kiri is the Strongest Man to not win this particular competition. But he has numerous other international competition wins under his belt (only 9 WSM winners have won more competitions than him). He is one of the statically strongest of all time as well (400 D, 390 S and 302.5 B/ both SM and PL standards).
Thank you Strength Universe for doing a great video about him! 💪🏻
Thanks buddy, pleased you like it.
bro is the biggest strongman fan ever, do you follow powerlifting and Olympic lifting too or just strongman?
@@StrengthUniverse Thank you for the awesome content as usual buddy!
@@ronnana694 Thanks buddy, that's a huge compliment! Don't know whether I deserve it. I love Strongman, Powerlifting, Weightlifting, Bodybuilding and Armwrestling the most. In general, I like anything with muscle and strength.
Yes nirmal is very accurate with his stats I have seen him comment on other strongman videos
Just read a news arcticle about Riku Kiri. He's now 60, works as a carpenter in his own company and still doing workouts. He encourages people to train legs and is not a fan of people doing bench press with bench shirt.
Still a better job than doing a security guard for 19 hours per day otherwise he's definitely one of the GOAT
Thanks for making a full feature on Kiri. That was back in the day when Finland produced many international level strongmen.
Riku Kiri is the only person in the world to have be given the title of world's strongest man without actually winning world's strongest man and he deserves every bit of it! Thank you for another amazing video! I'm still going through all your other videos 💪
Thanks for all your support, much appreciated
Great video, Riku was always one of my favorites
Riku is a chill guy nowadays working on construction industry. I remember him competing at the 90's. Here in Finland he was unbeatable at his prime🇫🇮
Riku Kiri, the man with the greatest strength to ankle weakness ratio.
🤣🤣👍👍
Achilles heel
He was a "Monster"! My favorite Strongman in 90s.
That mid 90s era of strongman was tough. Magnuson, Kiri, Badenhorst, Hoeberl, Taylor, Rasmusson
Great video again, and spot on I cannot disagree with the accolade, certainly at the time he was competing. I feel much the same about Derek Poundstone years later. Thanks for posting
Thanks Sam
He beat Sigmarsson in the 1985 Le Defi Mark Ten. He also once pulled a 300 kg one armed deadlift!!
Yeah, I have always thought this is the strongest man to never win. Thanks for another great video.
Thank you bud
I always thought that guy with the strange name from Finland was phenomenal yet never won it.
Working up to 19 hours a day probably was not best for getting quality sleep, recovery time and reducing inflammation. Probably would have been an absolute legend had he not had all those injuries.
It's crazy to think he could of been capable of so much more if he weren't injured and didn't work so many hours. Injury free and 100% time devoted to the sport and he'd be a house hold name in strong man I think
That stupid logfight-event was removed because the athletes hated it precisely for the risk of injury.
I remember this guy from the old WSM comps. I always thought he had the coolest name.
It’s definitely between Kiri and Poundstone, who won majors against a prime Pudz and Zydrunas
Prime Pudz was like 2009 and prime Zydrunas was 2014-2016.
@@meginna8354 Prime Z was 2009-2014.
@@dtosmanm4743 No, he was strongest and had most success in competitions in 2014-2016.
in early 2015 Zydrunas suffered his neck injury at Arnold's and many more after 2016 Arnold's that was no where near his best, 2009-14 is definitely Zydrunas' Peak
Great vídeo! Another video recommendation is to talk about Marcos Ferrari, a great Brazilian strongman.
Love the content. Keep it coming
What's the killer outro song
Thank you, pleased you enjoyed it. The song is Victoriya - The Best I Never Had
@@StrengthUniverse thanks man!
Strongman used to be so much cooler. No interesting events or competitors anymore
Yeah, him and Gerrit Badenhorst.. two uncrowned World's Strongest Men.
They were the two biggest deadlifters back then. Badenhorst edging it slightly. I think with figure of eight straps and a modern suit/bar badenhorst could have pulled 440kg in ‘96. His grip always let him down, he said it was due to an old rugby injury but I think he just had a weak grip. Hence farmers walk was a wasted event for him.
Imo 2020 Mateusz has to be the strongest never to win. The guy almost took the Arnold over Haftor
It was 2018 Mateusz almost beat Thor that year 😊
@@DevilDog5758 no I do meant the 2020 arnold
is that the one where mateusz won 4 of the 6 events?
@@H2oo2ze yeah, with a better deadlift he would have actually won. It's also when Mateusz did 320 lbs on the dumbell, and since Haftor had already won at that point he went for 330 just for the show and nearly got it
Jouko Ahola was able to win two titles despite being nowhere near as strong overall as Kiri. Jouko made for himself with his own hands an arsenal of strongman competition cadgets and equipment and trained specifically simulating the events. He had more balanced training routine of gym and the event simulation. That's why he won the titles. If only Kiri trained the events more, he perhaps would of won multiple titles also.
Glenn Ross should also be acknowledged. That dude was so strong
He has a video on Glenn Ross....
Great vid im rolling with O.D wilson imo
Bad luck, competition injuries and worse technique than others. A certain kind of carelessness and a little arrogant competition?
He is our man 🇫🇮. Now working as a Carpenter 61 years old. His own company.
And in video his woman competed in body building.
When Riku was a bouncer, two huge guys I know (one of them is unfortunately no longer with us) were going to that bar. There was some misunderstanding, but they were all able to discuss that and Riku let them in. He had a good heart in that job.
On the other hand, a friend of mine, who was a successful power lifter in his youth, does not value Mr. Kiri very much. According to him, Kiri used illegal substances to achieve his strength.
"used illegal substances". So do 90% of the competing powerlifters that get any kind of success so why not top-shelf strongmen. And that 90% is on the low, generous end of the scale. I mean i value pure athletes as much as the next guy but even though WADA says something is not ok and still everyone uses in a particular sport, it's okay to use them in a particular sport. This is just my opinion ofcourse...
The best of the best!
poundstone might be, just imo, definitely the best strongman to never win
by the sounds of things here he was literally the world's strongest man un-crowned... at one point
Riku you legend you man
Hes up there with poundstone and jenkins for sure
Some of these events were really not exactly related to pure strength--while form is always important, your form as a competitive pole pusher (giggety) could surpass your strength.
Hii buddy how r u doing? Great video as usual . A video on Riku kiri was long overdue. The strongest guy that has never won the wsm competition while participating has to be anyone between Riku Kiri, Gerrit Badenhorst, Od Wilson, Derek Poundstone and Glenn Ross. Depends what do u mean by strength and what is your criteria to judge pure strength.
Cheers Buddy, Agreed strength can be measured in so many ways. Kiri had great static strength and a very good record in competition.
Riku doesn't training strongman events so much. Few weeks before the competition😔
I'd consider mateusz the best strongman to never win but Riku is probably statically stronger
I think Gerrit Badenhorst is the strongest never to win it. He had the deadlift world record at one time and had the record for pressing the stone overhead. He had several injuries that kept him from winning. Should do a video on him.
Went back and watched the 1996 wsm final deadlift. Kiri failed 390kg, Magnus mag failed 410kg, badenhorst pulled the 410kg. Maybe kiri was injured but he was always ‘injured’ for wsm.
Kiri's best at the 1996 WSM was 370.
I know you’ve probably answered this but ..: who, arguably, is the strongest man ever (in measurable terms) clean or otherwise?
Do mitchell hooper vs jf caron
I met him and chatted a few times when training at ALEXIUM gym Helsinki (mid '90's) ... a thorough and decent gentleman .... but for his ankle injury would certainly have won a world strongman title ! ,,,,,,, my@is only an aka
19hrs as a security guard wtf ....... this guy could have been a top trainer at a school or gym or privately ...
That was and pretty much still is the culture here. Powerlifter, strongmen, fighters... They work the door. It has started to change towards the PT-business but in a country this small and drinking so much, there's always more need for bouncers than personal trainers😂
Almost 20 years ago there was this online troll that used to always bring up Riku kiri. LOL!!
For the record my vote for the strongest never to win the strongest man contest is probably Mikhail Koklyaev or maybe OD Wilson.
The only guy i could never beat. Riku was phenomenal strong. In static events and Grip the strongest of that time.
Heinz, You were a phenomenal strongman!
I'd say Derek Poundstone is the strongest man to never win
I find it more impressive that he worked 19 hours as a security guard, i mean cmon now how does that even work? 🤨
Why don't you make a video on who is the most underrated World's Strongest Man winner? I think it's Jamie Reeves...
That would be Janne Virtanen in my opinion.
Reeves was a powerhouse and smart. Career cut short with bicep tears.
Lars Hedlund from Sweden is one of the strongest ever not to win wsm
His lifts in single ply suites and raw lifts makes current WSM look like school kids , with the amount diet , science , and drug advancements on offer today forget the fact all todays lifters primally rain for those events
Disappointed that there isn't a Raid Shadow Legends sponsorship in this video. TH-cam is honestly going downhill fast
I only show a sponsored advert once every 1 to 2 months and keep them to the minimum length that I am allowed as I appreciate they can be annoying.
Derek Poundstone, for me.
" The Strongest Man Never to Win The World's Strongest Man!" - KYRIAKOS KAPAKOULAK (GRIZZLY).
Half Rikus problem was his wife 😈💯💯💯
What do you mean? Explain
@@The_World_Champion. please is a word
in the worlds strongest man book . his wife is mentioneda few times as being a major ball breaker
@@The_World_Champion. from my own viewing . she was very vocal to the point of hysterical
@@The_World_Champion. Douglas Edmunds book
giants and legends book
Derek Poundstone the strongest who never won !!!!!
Kieliszkowski. For now.
It’s a tie between Riku Kiri & Derek Poundstone
Lars Hedlund was also one of the strongest men to never win
I would say it's between 3 people. Kiri, Poundstone and Fleming Rasmussen. Fleming was really close in 97 and dominated the organization that broke away from wsm. He was a fantastic presser and incredibly mobile for a big guy, not the best deadlifter tho.
Dougie edmunds hated Rasmussen. He would never be allowed to win wsm.
@@mark4lev True
OD Wilson was a legend died of a heart attack at 37 was it steroids?
The fact that he lost because they made him have to do a race with bricks in his back vs jon pall sigmarsson was criminal imo
19h a day working, damn...
100% OD Wilson
Paul Anderson probably
Nice suggestion but given Pauls height and athletic ability it's highly unlikely he would have ever been able to win the WSM
@@StrengthUniverse I was more referring to Paul as being one of the strongest men ever, for specifically WSM competition yes Riku was a beast
I can name 3 people stronger than this dude (by numbers and comp performances) just off the top of my head. If you are only looking at retired/past competitors then maybe Big Loz (Lawrence Shahlei)
You can name 3 people who didn’t win the WSM who had close to a 400kg squat and deadlif. bench pressed over 300kg and finished on the podium almost 90% of the competitions they competed in?
Name them
Riku kiri is the finnish king of strength