Well, the baseball season has begun, the basketball season is almost over and football has its annual draft coming up. With all that excitement around, I have decided to dedicate this column to the World’s Strongman Competition.

No, this isn’t professional wrestling, in which the men are all buffed up looking like pretty boys with oil dripping off every muscle. These men are behemoths that are into weightlifting for the pure strength it requires.

These men are pure mounds of undefined muscle, not the body builders seen in Muscle Magazine.

The top names are Magnus VerMagnusson, Gerrit Badenhorst and Kiri.

I’m sorry I can’t remember their names completely, but these guys are from countries like South Africa, Latvia and Finland.

Their names are almost impossible to pronounce and even harder to spell.

No, this isn’t some sissy competition in which the winners are the ones who can bench the most, or who can best show off their biceps, though one certain Finnish competitor likes to do just that.

These men perform tasks that seem nearly impossible. One of the many competitions involves throwing a 26-pound cement block over the competitor’s head that must also clear a two-story wall behind the competitor.

The last event of last year’s contest involved lifting three weights up a series of five steps. This may not seem too difficult, but it took five men just to bring each of the weights back down.

Two other competitions include carrying a refrigerator on the strongman’s back while walking a certain distance and pulling a tractor and trailer loaded with sugar cane 20 meters.

The most entertaining competition in my opinion is the draw-and- quarter, in which competitors hold a handle in each hand as long as they possibly can. The catch is that at the end of each handle is a full-size car, straining each competitor’s body to the breaking point.

My point is, these guys are true athletes. They don’t do it for the fame or glamour.

They work-out for the pure thrill of weightlifting. The competition is just a bonus.

They do it for pride, just the way athletes used to do it.

You hear no stories of these guys leaving their countries because some other nation flashed more cash in their faces.

You don’t hear these men requesting cash advances to appear at the World’s Strongman Competitions.

It was sports the way it was meant to be before cash came along and ruined it. It would be nice to see loyalty like this in other sports.

Magnus VerMagnusson currently holds a dynasty on the sport, winning three competitions in a row. However, Badenhorst is always a threat.

Of course, any man that can dead lift over 900 pounds and squat about the same could always be considered a threat.

It is hard to tell when the competition begins, because ESPN runs so many reruns, but the shows are on almost every Tuesday night after “Sportscenter.”

Until next column, Z-ya.

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CADE REMSBURG is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Ames.