Geoff Capes – a life in pictures

Britain’s greatest shot putter and World’s Strongest Man winner has died aged 75. Here we look back at his life and career

A 17-year-old Geoff Capes gets some weightlifting practice in. As a youngster Capes was a gifted sportsman, and represented Lincolnshire at basketball, football and cross-country. In addition he was a decent sprinter, running 23.7sec for the 200m.

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After school he worked as a coalman and an agricultural labourer, and given these professions it’s not surprising that he would utilise his strength in the sporting field and become a shot putter. His first major competition was the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh. Here he is in 1971 posing with his week’s worth of food.

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Following in the footsteps of his grandfather, uncle and older brothers, Capes joined Cambridgeshire Constabulary in 1970, and remained in the police for 10 years; his departure from the police came when he decided to compete in the 1980 Moscow Olympics, despite the British Government’s calls for a boycott, and was thereby forced to resign his position.

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Shot putter Geoff Capes with his two-year-old son Lewis in February 1974. Capes’ sporting prowess rubbed off on his son as Lewis was a member of his school’s athletic squad, competing in shot putt, as well as featuring in their rugby and water polo squads. After leaving school, he moved to the United States and represented Santa Monica College’s athletic squad and played defensive end for the football team. From 1995 to 1998, Capes played for the London Monarchs of the World League of American Football.

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Capes with his five-week-old daughter, Emma, pictured in July 1974. Like her father and older brother, Emma also competed in shot put becoming English Schools’ champion and Youth Olympics bronze medallist

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In February 1976 Capes retained his title at the European Indoor Athletic Championships, adding to his gold medal tally which also included the 1974 and 1978 Commonwealth Games.

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In May 1976 Capes threw a personal best of 21.55 metres (70ft 8in) at Gateshead.

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Like many of the era’s top sportsmen, Capes appeared in the TV series Superstars.

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Capes must have taken a shine to his Superstars top as he wore it whilst in action at the AAA Championships at Crystal Palace in July 1977.

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Capes gestures to spectators in the Stadion Evzena Rosickeho in Prague as he acts as flag bearer for the Great Britain team during the opening ceremony for the 1978 European Athletics Championships. This may have been in response to Capes considering boycotting the games after alleging that East European throwers used banned drugs. “There is no point in trying to compete with Eastern Bloc countries who ignore the regulations on drug taking.”

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In 1979 he started his strongman career and won the inaugural Britain’s Strongest Man. Here Capes (right) and his fellow strongmen pose with Barbara Windsor who was a presenter on the show.

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In May 1980 Capes threw the longest distance of his career, 21.68 metres (71ft 2in) for a new Commonwealth and British record. He went into the Olympics as the athlete with the best distance that year and once again a favourite for the title. However, he finished fifth and Capes said his performance at the game had left him “numbed with disappointment”.

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Capes turned fully professional in 1980, the Olympics in Moscow being his last event as an amateur athlete, and Capes became a household name in Britain and many parts of the world for his strongman abilities, such as ripping up telephone directories …

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And lifting cars.

Photograph: Eugene Adebari/Shutterstock

In addition his shot put titles, Capes also was also a six times Highland Games world champion and held world records in numerous events. Here he is sharing a joke with the Royal family at the 1982 Braemar Highland Games in Scotland.

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Capes also established a strongman world record in truck pulling in 1983, when it took him 54.3 seconds to haul a 12.5 Ton Mercedes Benz truck and trailer unit to the finishing line.

Photograph: PA

Throughout his athletic and strongman careers Capes was a keen breeder of budgerigars, going on to become world champion in the field.

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Capes’ profile also led to numerous appearances on British television including Supergran in the episode Supergran Grounded.

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Capes also starred on stage, appearing as Odd Job at the Theatre Royal Newcastle for their 1991 pantomime Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, starring alongside Linda Lusardi.

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Geoff Capes signs copies of his book at Olympus in Reading in March 1991.

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Capes put his knowledge to good use following retirement by coaching many up and coming shot putters at Loughborough University, including Rebecca Peake, one of the Elite GB Shot Put squad.

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In addition to his two Commonwealth titles and two European indoor titles, Geoff Capes is the most capped British male athlete of all time, receiving 67 international caps and earning 35 wins, not including a further 35 caps for England. He is a winner of 17 national titles, including being seven times a winner of the AAA championship and three times UK champion. In 1983 he was voted Britain’s best-ever field athlete.

Photograph: Eamonn McCabe/The Guardian