Hafthor Bjornsson, who plays The Mountain on HBO series Game of Thrones, isn’t just a beast onscreen.
In real life he’s also a professional strongman, and this past weekend he broke the world record in the deadlift.
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With this achievement, Bjornsson cemented his place as one of the strongest people on the planet. No wonder his character, a.k.a. Gregor Clegane, is so feared by everyone in Westeros. At the 2018 Arnold Strongman Classic held in Columbus, Ohio, Bjornsson lifted 472 kilograms, which is slightly over 1,000 pounds, without the help of a deadlift suit. (The deadlift suit provides additional support for lifters.)
The six-foot-nine-inch tall Bjornsson beat last year’s winner, Brian Shaw, and Mikhail Shivlyakov from Russia — who actually started bleeding from the face during his deadlift.
Bjornsson also broke another world record by easily throwing a 56-pound weight over a 20-foot-high bar.
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He holds two other world record titles: one in the 20-metre fridge carry (which is just what it sounds like — he carried two fridges for 20 metres in the shortest time) and the other in the keg toss.
Game of Thrones and The Mountain return in 2019 for the show’s final season. Clearly, Bjornsson has a whole other career waiting for him afterwards.
(You can watch Bjornsson break the record in the video, top.)
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