Geoff Capes, two-time world's strongest man, dies aged 75

Geoff Capes, the two-time world's strongest man and British shot-putter, has died at the age of 75.

Standing at 6ft 5' and weighing 27 stone the ex-Olympian won the hearts of millions of fans and admirers throughout his life as a GB athlete. 

He made his name as the country's greatest ever shot putter and the national record he set back in 1980 still stands today.

The 17-time British, Commonwealth and European champion never won the Olympic medal he so craved, finishing sixth in Montreal and eight in the Moscow games.

But he moved on to conquer the world as a 'strongman.'

A family statement released today read: '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.'

He was born in Lincolnshire the seventh of nine children and was still living there, in the village of Stoke Rochford, near Grantham, when he died yesterday. 

His strength came from a tough early upbringing - after leaving school at 14 to work as a coalman and agricultural labourer, loading 20 tons of potatoes in 20 minutes.

He once described his childhood: 'The family wasn’t just working class but was on the lowest rung of that very long ladder that is the English class system.'

Although he was clearly an athletic boy, he struggled in his youth to be particularly successful at sports.

He was banned from playing for a local football team for a year after hitting a referee during a match. And his first attempt at competitive shot-putting ended in him gaining second-last place at the finals of the 1964 All England Schools Athletics Championships. 

However, he persevered and was soon spotted by international hurdler, Stuart Storey while training at the Holbeach Athletic Club, who helped coach him early on.

He later went on the join the police and remained in the Cambridgeshire force for 10 years.

It was here in 1969, that Capes developed his life-long love of birds, caring for hundreds of them right up until his death. 

He had been sent out to arrest a man for non-payment of a fine. 

'I knocked on his front door and he didn't answer, so I looked through the window and the front room was full of the most beautiful birds - I'd always loved birds. When he eventually opened the door, I asked if I could come in and have a look.

'So we sat down and had a cup of tea and had a lovely chat about budgerigars. I did eventually remember to arrest him,' he told the Mail in 2009. 

'But he was very good about it and started me off with my first three pairs of budgerigars. I've never looked back.'

He even took on the role of president of the British Budgerigar Society in 2008.

His professional career as an athlete was littered with successes, despite his tumultuous start from the self-proclaimed 'fighter'.   

Capes, who would hitchhike to his athletics competitions, was twice the Commonwealth Games champion in the shot put and claimed two European indoor titles.

To maintain his ginormous physique he would eat 'six pounds of red meat. A dozen eggs. A large tin of baked beans. Two tins of pilchards. One and a half pounds of cottage cheese. A packet of cereal. Two large loaves of bread. A pound of butter. A pint of orange juice. And seven pints of milk' every day.

Just before the Olympic Games in Moscow in 1980, Capes was forced to resign from his job in the police force over increasing political pressure to boycott the event. 

He told the Telegraph: 'Russia invaded Afghanistan, and Margaret Thatcher banned all the services from going – army and police – because they paid their wages. So I resigned from the police just before the Olympics. I lost my career, lost my pension, lost my income. They had total control over you.' 

As well as winning the World's Strongest Man title twice, Capes finished in the top three of the event a further four occasions.

He remained involved in athletics by becoming a coach of several national level shot putters.

He was sent home in disgrace from the European Championships in Prague in 1978 after punching a referee and two guards touting machine guns when they complained he wasn't wearing the right competition number.

'When I'm getting ready for a competition, you don't talk to me - end of story,' he explained afterwards.

Following his retirement from competition Capes took up coaching and helped many aspiring athletes, as well as appearing on two reality television shows. 

Taking his professional career to the next level, he also took part in the more lucrative strongman circuit, where he was crowned world's strongest man in 1983 and 1985.

This in part helped his rise to becoming a household name - as the event was watched by around 15 million people each year.

The assortment of strength tests – bending steel bars, lifting a platform of bunny girls, rolling over cars, pulling lorries, loading sacks of sand onto the back of a truck, arm wrestles and tug of war – gave the show cult status.

And Capes was quickly a TV star with 17 pantomime appearances and children’s TV to performances at the Palladium with Bobby Davro.

During his athletics career, Capes was crowned as UK shot put champion on three occasions.

He claimed gold at the 1984 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, achieving a event record throw of 20.74 metres.

Capes defended the title four years later in Edmonton, Canada.

Further success was achieved at continental level, winning gold at the European Indoor Championships in Gothenburg and Munich in 1984 and 1986, respectively.

He also claimed bronze in the European Championships in 1984 in Rome.

Capes represented Britain at three Olympic Games, finishing sixth at Montreal 1976 and fifth at Moscow 1980.

He achieved his personal best throw of 21.68m in 1980, which stood as a British record until 2003. 

Capes became a professional strongman following the Olympics in Moscow, enjoying success at the Highland Games.

A father-of-two, after retiring from competition he went on to be a coach and mentor as well as running a sports shop and being a magistrate.

Tributes have begun flooding in from members of the public.