Geoff Capes, legendary British strongman and shot putter, dies aged 75

Geoff Capes, who has died at the age of 75, became one of the most recognisable faces in Great Britain after following up a glittering athletics career by twice becoming the World’s Strongest Man.

Also a six-time Highland Games winner and even a world champion in breeding budgerigars, Capes’s national shot put record of 21.68m was set in 1980 and remains the longest standing track and field record in British athletics.

He was also one of the most decorated, capped and popular athletes in British history, winning 17 national titles and nine major championship medals, including two Commonwealth and two European indoor golds.

A statement, which was released on Wednesday afternoon, said: “The family of Geoffrey Capes would like to announce his sad passing today, 23rd October. Britain’s finest shot-putter and twice world’s strongest man.”

British Athletics immediately expressed their deep sadness at the news while Tom Stoltman, the current World’s Strongest Man, described Capes as a one-off whose accomplishments will never be equalled.

“I’m deeply saddened to hear of the passing of such a legend of strength,” said the Briton. “Geoff was a real inspiration, watching clips of him growing up, and as I started to compete you couldn’t not be inspired.

“His feats will never be matched – to be elite level across so many strength sports – strongman, athletics and Highland Games – is mind blowing.”

World Athletics president Lord Coe, who was also a frequent Great Britain team-mate, said: “Geoff’s passing is a sad moment for so many of us in both British and global athletics. “He was a huge figure in British athletics and brought the crowds back to our sport. Fiercely independent, competitive, but always protective of the teams that he captained with distinction.”

Tessa Sanderson, the Olympic javelin champion in 1984, said Capes was a “great person and a giant of an athlete”.

Reigning British shot put champion Scott Lincoln said he was the man who put the sport “on the map in the UK”, adding: “An icon, hero, legend, role model, friend and all-round good guy. Will be sorely missed by not only me but so many around the athletics community.”

What proved to be Capes’s last interview was conducted last summer with The Telegraph, during which he described how, having been the seventh of nine children, athletics was the gateway from an impoverished background in rural Lincolnshire.

Capes did not even have shoes when he competed in his first competition.

“I threw in bare feet in a concrete circle,” he said. “My mother was a matron and all of my clothes came from the old people’s home after people had died.

“I was a hell of a fighter as well. If the next town came down on a Friday and there were only eight or nine of them I’d say, ‘Go back and get some more’. I was quite quiet but there was an inner aggression.

“My headmaster, a guy called Joe Fathers, took great pleasure trying to knock it out of me. He was ex-Borstal. He had a choice of canes. He’d hit you anywhere – across the knuckles with a two by two. On the last day I went into his office, took the canes off the wall in the office in front of him, and walked out.”

A talent for athletics soon became evident and, under the guidance of the former BBC commentator Stuart Storey, Capes rose to become one of the best shot putters in the world.

He was one of the favourites for the Olympic title in Moscow in 1980 but, having finished fifth after a sixth-place finish at the Montreal Games four years earlier (largely behind throwers from East Germany and the Soviet Union), he left his job where he was earning £9.50 a week as a policeman to focus on the world of strongman.

He finished in the top three on six separate occasions, peaking with victories in 1983 and 1985, and would also dominate the world Highland Games. He was also Europe’s strongest man three times. At a height of 6ft 5in but with explosive speed that had also made him an outstanding sprinter, Capes was also renowned for how much he could eat. His daily diet would famously include a dozen eggs, seven pints of milk, two loaves of bread and six pounds of red meat, all washed down with a pint of orange juice.

“I ate like a f---ing horse,” he said. “Anything I could get my hands on. But nearly all protein. It’s like a steam engine. Put the coal in. I was burning up to 10,000 calories every four or five hours.”

Capes’s achievements brought him cult status and he appeared prime time on every major television programme from This Is Your Life and The Sooty Show (where Sweep dreamed of beating him at the tug of war) to Blankety Blank and Supergran (who he nearly killed with a stray throw of an enormous tree trunk).

He also made 17 pantomime appearances and featured in numerous television adverts (he famously gave the VW Polo a once over by rolling it from top to bottom and side to side).

In retirement, Capes became a coach of numerous successful shot putters and was president of the Budgerigar Society. His children, Lewis and Emma, were also national shot put champions and the family tradition is currently being continued by grandchildren Donovan and Lawson.

In that Telegraph interview last year, Capes said: “There were stronger people out there – I met a lot of them in the fens of Lincolnshire. But it was about the application of strength. Can you apply it at speed? Can you run with 400 pounds? I basically did that on a farm when I was a kid with sacks of potatoes.

“And I worked things out technically. No matter what it was, I wanted to win. I had my time. I enjoyed my life and I went around the world. How many people can say that?”