Cheick “Iron Biby” Sanou is a soon to be 28-year-old strongman from Burkina Faso who weighs just shy of 400lbs, stands 6 foot 2 inches tall, and holds the world record for the most number of times a human being has overhead pressed another human being in a minute. (It was eighty-two reps. She must have been dizzy.)
More recently, Biby set an unofficial log press world record of 233.5kg/514.8lb. He actually hit this lift on March 9th during training for the 2020 World Log Lift Championship, but was “being quiet” since that event was originally scheduled to take place on April 4th and he wanted to surprise us.
However, now that the coronavirus pandemic has forced Giants Live to postpone the event until August 8th, Iron Biby decided to share his progress because:
“…many people are acting and forgetting who won the log lift CHAMPIONSHIP last year.”
He won last year with 220kg. Here’s 233.5kg/514.8lb.
According to his caption, Iron Biby (of course) intends to make an official log lift world record at the 2020 Log Lift Championships in Leeds, England:
“Got many people inboxing me and wanting to know when I will break this record. Here IS my answer. Because of this pandemic every professional sports in the World have been postponed. Mortality rate going up everyday. I really Care about what Happening now so I will wait & compete when things Come back to normal. The official New date of GIANTS LIVE WORLD LOG LIFT CHAMPIONSHIP is August 8th. To be crown a king you have to face all the athletes and in front of strongman fans. That’s how IT’S DONE!”
The current log lift world record is held by one of the most decorated strongmen of all-time: Zydrunas Savickas. Savickas, who won the Log Lift World Championship five years in a row from 2008 to 2013 actually set the world record of 228kg/502.7lb at the 2015 Arnold Strongman Classic.
[Related: Learn how to properly perform the overhead press with strongman Joey Szatmary.]
Once in training, Iron Biby actually matched Savickas’ world record and then attempted to make it a double. He didn’t make the second lift but did prove that the world record was well within reach.
And now that he’s made a 233.5kg lift… well, come the 2020 World Log Lift Championship on August 8th, we’ll have our eyes on Iron Biby.
Feature image from Iron Bidy’s Instagram page: @ironbiby
