Hugo Girard

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Hugo Girard (born December 20, 1971) in Saint-Anne-de-Portneuf, Québec) is a Canadian strongman and is a one-time World Champion and a five-time Canada's Strongest Man.

[edit] Background

Girard started lifting weights at the age of 5. At age 12, he stated to his mother that he wanted to become the World's strongest man. His father was also participating in strongmen competition. Prior to his career as a strongman competitor, Girard worked as a bouncer in a popular Quebec City nightclub on weekends while he was studying police science in community college. In the early 1990s, he went to Los Angeles in order to either pursue a career as a professional bodybuilder or as an actor. After a few months, Girard came back to the province of Quebec where he was later hired as a police officer for the city of Gatineau.

Girard burst into the world's strongmen stage in the mid 90s. He became a finalist for the World's Strongest Man competition starting in 1998. However he has never won the title of World's Strongest Man.

In 2002-2003, Girard reached the most successful point of his career by winning the year's Strongman Super Series, a series of events across several countries around the world. The events were held in Morocco, Zambia and Malaysia He became World Champion but lost the title the following year to his Polish rival and three-time World's Strongest Man, Mariusz Pudzianowski.

Girard dominated strongman competition in Canada for several years. He was the Canadian Champion from 1999 to 2003. He was also the North American champion in 2001 and 2002. Over the past few years, injuries plagued his career including a serious foot injury in 2004 that required a long period of rehabilitation. That forced him to miss several major world events in 2005. Girard is slowly getting back into the heat of competition while training several times a week.

Girard broke several records in which some are still standing today. He once hold the record including the crucifix hold and the Farmer's walk competitions while he got also numerous Canadian records including Atlas Stones, bench press, Truck Pull and Squat which some of them also are still standing. He has also pulled an 80-ton Boeing 737 for a short distance.

Girard was often compared by Quebecers to former Quebec strongman Louis Cyr who dominated the sport in the late 19th century, due to his brute force and strength. Girard also developed several additional strongmen in the Ottawa and Gatineau region including Jessen Paulin who've also participated in the World's Strongman Competition when Girard was out due to his injury.

Girard is currently one a member of the organization of the Gatineau Hot Air Balloon Festival that takes place every Labour Day weekend. He is mostly involved in the Canadian Strongmen Final Competition that crowns the Canadian Champion and qualifies him and the runner-up for the World's Strongest Man competition. He is also the current president of the Canadian Federation of Strength Athletes. Parallel to his competitive career, Girard always maintained employment as a police officer.