1998 "World's Strongest Man" Magnus Samuelsson (Sweden) is gearing up to defend his title.

Explaining where he is now and what he plans to do this year, Samuelsson said, "Training at the moment is going the best that I've ever done. Maybe I'm slightly too heavy for endurance at the moment, but I think before 'World's Strongest Man' I will try to go down-I'm 146 kg now. I think maybe I will go down a few kilos to get more endurance back. I start also to get the hunger back for competing. Of course, I will give everything for 'World's Strongest Man.' If I can, I will try to collect as many competitions as I can before, but there are a lot of guys competing on the circuit and nothing is for free."

Samuelsson, a former arm wrestling champion, first competed in the 1995 "World's Strongest Man" contest, and quickly established himself as a star (see MILO, Volume 6 - Number 1).