Sometime the other week, countless schoolchildren from Round Rock, Texas came face to face with the World’s Strongest Man.
Texas native Mark Henry, a previous Olympic weightlifter, record-breaking powerlifter and Proficient Wrestling World Champion, was joined by a group of ex-NFL stars as well as his WWE colleague, Mark Callaway, AKA The Undertaker.
The occasion was created to advertise the importance of schooling, wellbeing and exercise in time for that new school term. Henry flew in from New York in order to visit the kids and inspire them to better things for the coming school months. As part of the day’s festivities, Henry pulled a Semi Truck for a substantial distance in front of a bunch of amazed children, event organizers and parents.
Mark Henry’s inventory of athletic accomplishments is impressive. He competed in both the 1992 and 1996 Olympic games as a weightlifter; Henry was also a Gold Medal winner in the 1995 Pan American Games and was named Drug-Free World Champion Powerlifter in 1995. He was named U.S powerlifting champion twice. He’s a reigning world record holder in several areas and is credited with the largest raw squat and raw powerlifting total ever performed by a drug-tested athlete.
Henry is also a three-time U.S National Weightlifting Champion, an American Open winner, Two-Time U.S Olympic Festival Champion and NACAC Champion. In 2002, he won the very first annual Arnold Strongman Classic Competition and has openly completed numerous feats of strength, including pushing a tank.
Mark Henry’s claim to being the ‘World’s Strongest Man’ is rather dubious and never thought sanctioned by most organizations, but later set lifting records throughout his life and winning at least one strongman contest, his declaration is respected by most (and the visual evidence is tough to deny).
Henry has also had a 17-year career in Professional Wrestling, competing in the WWE (formerly WWF) ever since company owner Vince McMahon learned that Henry was a wrestling enthusiast. His consequent career has seen him win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship twice, also as the ECW Championship and the WWE European Championship.
Notwithstanding his no-nonsense on-screen facade (a personality who often welcomes his enemies to that ‘Hall of Pain’) Henry is extremely active with the ‘Make a Wish’ Foundation, (a charity group that grants desires to children with life-threatening or incurable ailments) as well as many anti-drug and anti-bullying campaigns.
When interviewed over on the day, Henry said: “I would like the children to see what I didn’t have. I did not have a great deal growing up. I hope more people did it for me, so I try to do it in kind.”
http://pop-break.com/2013/05/08/rant-a-mania-wwe-the-make-a-wish-foundation/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_henry
http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/Bios/henry_mark.html
Promoting Wellbeing and Exercise, World"s strongest man give a helping hand
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