Note: October 2000, Update reflecting results of WSM 2000. 
Note:  January 2000,  I have updated not only the table but most of the writing as well. 

I thought it would be interesting to see how many times a country has been represented in the finals. Also how many times they placed in the top five and the number of wins they captured.

The United States leads with 61x in the finals. Twenty-nine of those in the top five but only 6 first place finishes. Those six wins were from 1977-1982 which was a very long time ago. Bill Kazmaier won 3 years in a row, Bruce Wilhelm won the very first two competitions and Don Reinhoudt with one top place finish also. Unfortunately the only other US competitor to even come close was O.D. Wilson in 1990 who lost to Jon Pall Sigmarsson by only a half point. Talk about disappointment. Of course in the first few WSM competition's it was basically only made up of US competitors so that is why the high number of showings for the US.

And now there is a whole new crop of American strength athletes out there making waves. Mark Philippi and Gary Mitchell seem to have led the way.  Then there are the new young lions like Whit Baskin, Karl Gillingham & Phil Pfister who have made the strength scene here in the states seem that much more brighter. These guys and the many others out there who are promoting the real American strength scene have shown the world that we may have been down in the recent past but never out.  Suddenly we are contenders again.  

I felt the need to breakdown the UK wins individually and add them to the table on their own merits. Combined the UK has 20 total appearances in the finals, with 16 of those in the top five. England had the highest number of athletes who competed and most successful was the great Geoff Capes and his seven top placings including two wins.  Jamie Reeves has three top fives and Adrian Smith with one.  Scotland's best was two fifth places from Forbes Cowan although Jamie Barr is turning heads now.  Gary Taylor was the only competitor turned out from Wales but he was a tough one indeed making four finals appearances and winning in 1993, and as for Northern Ireland well Glenn Ross where are you?

Finland has been in the finals 19x with two wins from Jouko Ahola in 1997 & 1999, and one from Janne Virtanen.  It will be interesting to see who will win if these two face each other in the final in 2001 since Jouko did not compete this year.  Then of course there is the great Ilkka Nummisto who has placed 3x in top 5's plus 2x more in the top 10.  For the time being I don't see any reason that the finns won't continue to dominate. 

Iceland still has the best averages. Represented 16x in the finals and they've won eight. They also have 14/16 for top 5's. The wins of course coming from the late Jon-Pall Sigmarsson and the other half by Magnus Ver Magnusson who has been on the comeback trail after an illness. Always a favorite many would love to see him recapture his former glory.   There is also Torfi Olafsson who does well in competitions but because of his size lacks the speed and overall fitness needed to truly excel.

Look for athletes fom Poland, Czech Republic, Canada and the US to start posting some big wins.

Australia, Estonia, Fiji, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Namibia, and Nigeria all have one appearance in the finals.  Italy's was a 5th place finish and the others placed lower 
than the top five.

Kinda puts it all in perspective looking at it like that.