Martins Licis facts for kids
Licis in March 2017
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Native name | Mārtiņš Līcis | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nickname(s) | The Dragon (Latvian: Pūķis) |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | September 28, 1990 Riga, Latvia |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 6 ft 3 in | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 331–355 lbs | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| YouTube information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years active | 2009–present | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Genre | Strength Training/Strongman | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Subscribers | 301k (23 January 2025) |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Total views | 40.78 million (23 January 2025) |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Strongman Mas-wrestling |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Medal record
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Martins Licis (born September 28, 1990) is an American professional strongman. He is famous for winning the 2019 World's Strongest Man contest. He also won the 2022 Arnold Strongman Classic and the 2021 Rogue Invitational strongman championships.
Martins is one of only four strongmen in history to win both the World's Strongest Man and Arnold Strongman Classic titles. He holds several world records in different strongman events. These include the Steinborn squat and the Thor's Hammer one-arm grip lift.
Contents
Early Life and Training
Martins Licis was born in Riga, Latvia, on September 28, 1990. When he was four years old, his family moved to the United States. He grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts. Martins has dual citizenship, meaning he is a citizen of both Latvia and the United States. He also speaks Latvian fluently.
During his summer breaks, Martins would visit his grandparents' farm in Latvia. His grandfather, Imants Līcis, was a sculptor and a former Olympic weightlifter. He first taught Martins about stone lifting, which is a type of strength training.
When Martins was 12, he started weight training. He wanted to become "outrageously strong" after being bullied. In high school, he wrestled and began competing in strongman contests as a teenager.
In 2010, Martins moved to California. He worked as a personal trainer. He later met Odd Haugen, a strongman promoter, who invited him to train at his gym. Martins started competing in Haugen's Strength Classic in 2015.
Strongman Career Highlights
In 2015, Martins Licis won the Odd Haugen All-American Strength Classic. The next year, in 2016, he made it to the finals of the World's Strongest Man competition for the first time, finishing sixth. He improved to fourth place in both 2017 and 2018.
Besides strongman, Martins also competes in mas-wrestling. This is a sport similar to stick wrestling. In 2016, he won a gold medal at the MAS Wrestling Open World Championships. His first professional win in strongman came in 2017 at the Ultimate Strongman Summermania. He represented his home country, Latvia, in this competition.
Winning the World's Strongest Man
In 2019, Martins placed second at the Arnold Strongman Classic. Later that year, in June, he achieved his biggest win: the World's Strongest Man title. He beat the defending champion, Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, who finished third. Martins performed very well in the final events. He placed in the top three in all five events and won two of them.
Recent Achievements
On January 18, 2020, Martins won the Arnold Strongman Santa Monica Qualifier. This win allowed him to compete at the 2020 Arnold Strongman Classic in March, where he finished third.
Martins spent much of 2020 and 2021 recovering from injuries. He made a big comeback at the first-ever Rogue Invitational Strongman competition in 2021. This event had the largest prize money in strongman history. Martins won the competition, beating strong competitors like Tom Stoltman and Oleksii Novikov. The next day, he set a new world record in the Thor's Hammer Lift. He lifted a 136-kilogram (300-pound) hammer.
In March 2022, Martins won the 2022 Arnold Strongman Classic for the first time. He performed consistently well in all events, placing first, second, or third in most of them. His win in the final event, Stone-to-Shoulder, secured him the title.
In May 2022, Martins returned to the World's Strongest Man contest. He finished second, just behind the winner, Tom Stoltman. Later that year, in November, he competed at the 2022 Rogue Invitational. He finished fourth after getting a bicep injury during the competition.
In March 2024, Martins competed at the 2024 Arnold Strongman Classic, finishing eighth. In April 2024, he decided to withdraw from the 2024 World's Strongest Man competition. He needed to recover from a leg injury and planned to take eight months off from competing.
Media Appearances
Martins Licis has appeared on several TV shows:
- In May 2020, he was on Game On! as an obstacle in a strength challenge.
- In August 2020, he appeared on To Tell The Truth. He was one of three people claiming to be the World's Strongest Man.
- In March 2021, he was in a Geico commercial called "Worlds Strongest Man Takes On The Recycling."
Personal Records
Martins Licis holds impressive records in various strongman events:
- Rogue Elephant bar Deadlift – 440 kg (970 lb) (without special gear, with straps) (2019 Arnold Strongman Classic)
- Sorinex Saxon bar Deadlift – 140 kg (309 lb) (2024 LA FIT Expo - Grip Contest) (Former World Record)
- Steinborn Squat – 256.5 kg (565 lb) (2019 Arnold Strongman Classic) (World Record)
- Log press – 200 kg (441 lb) (2022 Arnold Strongman Classic)
- Thor's Hammer one arm grip lift – 136 kg (300 lb) (2021 Rogue Invitational) (World Record)
- Inver Stones loading – 5 Stones weighing 125–191 kg (276–421 lb) in 23.53 seconds (2021 Rogue Invitational) (World Record)
- Conan's Wheel of Pain – 9,072 kg (20,000 lb) pushed 36.35 meters (119 3/4 feet) (2019 Arnold Strongman Classic) (World Record)
See also
In Spanish: Martins Licis para niños
