Franco Columbu

 an
Italian actor, former champion bodybuilder and
World's Strongest Man competitor.
Biography
Bodybuilding
Columbu was born in Ollolai , Sardinia (Italy).
Starting out his athletic career as a boxer ,
Columbu progressed into the sport of Olympic
Weightlifting, powerlifting and later
bodybuilding , winning the title of Mr. Olympia
in 1976 and 1981. At 163 centimetres (5.35 ft)
in height (some magazines reported as short
as 160 centimetres (5.2 ft)), [ citation needed ]
Columbu is shorter than most of his
bodybuilding competitors, but that did not
prevent him from achieving widespread
success.
In 1977, Columbu competed in the first World's
Strongest Man competition and was in fifth
place in total points during the competition; a
remarkable outing, considering that Franco
weighed much less than all his competitors.
Then came the refrigerator race, which called
for a downhill race in which a heavy, bulky,
unwieldy refrigerator is strapped to the racer's
back.  While ahead, Franco stumbled, and
was shown on national television collapsing
with a grotesquely dislocated leg. This ended
his participation in the World's Strongest Man
contest (in the end, he finished in fifth place).
After a court settlement, he received a reported
$1 million in compensation for his injury.  It
took six hours of surgery to remove all the
muscle and fix his leg. Doctors told him he
would never walk again, but Columbu fully
recovered in three years. [citation needed ] After
Arnold Schwarzenegger 's comeback victory in
the 1980 Mr. Olympia, Franco followed suit
and won the 1981 Mr. Olympia.
Columbu is a long time friend of
Schwarzenegger, whom he met in Munich in
1965 and against whom he competed in
several international-level bodybuilding
competitions. For the Mr. Olympia
competitions however, he competed in the
under 200 lb (90.7 kg) category, whereas
Schwarzenegger was in the over 200 lb
category. The final champion was determined
by a pose down between the two class
winners. The IFBB has since abandoned weight
classes. Arnold and Franco were inseparable
during the early to mid-1970s and were
training partners. Columbu served as the best
man at the wedding of Schwarzenegger and
Maria Shriver in 1986.  Columbu and
Schwarzenegger had been encouraged to come
to America by bodybuilding guru Joe Weider in
1969; Weider sponsored them with an $80/
week stipend and the two European
bodybuilders began a bricklaying and patio
business called European Brick Works in 1969,
according to a report in The New York Times.

From the time he arrived in America in 1969,
Franco Columbu was considered one of the
world's strongest men. He held a number of
powerlifting and Olympic weightlifting world
records. He also performed a strongman act in
which he routinely blew up a hot water bottle
by inflating it orally, lifted vehicles on stage
(while someone else was changing a tire) and
deadlifted over 320 kg (700 lbs) for
repetitions. He designed a comprehensive
workout for men in 1988 to flatten the
stomach, narrow the waist, and eliminate love
handles .He is both a chiropractor and a
weightlifter and his career parallels that of
American weightlifting champion Karyn
Marshall , who has used chiropractic therapy to
train for competitions and who became a
chiropractor herself.