The Mountain Is Still Europe’s Strongest Man
By Ani Bundel
The Mountain is living up to his new name of “Robert Strong.” For the second year in a row, Hafthór Björnsson, aka the man who managed to play the Mountain for two seasons in a row without being recast (a feat unmatched by either of his predecessors, assuming that was actually him in that suit of armor), has won the title of Strongest Man In Europe.
Though his win actually came nearly a month ago, while the rest of his castmates were making news at San Diego Comic Con, the highlight reel was only released over the weekend. It includes such feats of of strength as setting a personal best for deadlift, at 450kg. (For Americans, that’s 892 pounds, or about 100 shy of half a ton.)
Personally, I hope that this inspires Kevan Lannister to consider doing something of this nature for entertainment in King’s Landing. Instead of walking cars along a track, one could strap on a cart in place of a horse. Wagon wheel flipping doesn’t sound all that bad—perhaps the wagon wheels could be made of stone? As for the log and stone portions, they’d fit in to Westerosi Strongman competitions unaltered. I’m sure Robert Baratheon would have enjoyed the hell out of such a show.
Now all Björnsson has to do is make it to a third season of Game of Thrones without yet another Moutain recast. We know he can do it!