Professional League Strongmens of Ukraine

We, Strongmens of Ukraine, announce unification into a single group named ‘Professional League Strongmens of Ukraine’. This association gathers independent strongmen who are not members of any other federation or association, and aims at organizing and carrying out strongmen tournaments, setting up a contest and training process calendar, production of sports equipment for contests, contacting with International Federations in regard to carrying out of international tournaments in Ukraine and abroad, as well as taking care of the strongmen who are the members of the League (PLSU).

Registered members of the League and athletes specially invited by the League are entitled to participate in tournaments under the aegis of the 'Professional League Strongmens of Ukraine'. List of exercises, apparatuses, number of participants are to be negotiated and agreed at the meeting of the Executive Board of the PLSU. Upon approval by the Executive Board, the list of rights shall be submitted to the participants and referees.

 

 

We announce establishment of our association and simultaneous leave the Federation of the Strongest Athletes of Ukraine. We do not refuse to consider candidates who are the members of the above mentioned federation as potential participants of the tournaments under the aegis of the League. However, we declare openly about our unwillingness to contact with the leader of this establishment, Volodymir Kiba, as in recent years, his activities caused the downturn of strongmen sport in Ukraine. We remember that it was Volodymir Kiba who initiated these contests in Ukraine and it was under his direction when the Ukrainian combined team became four-fold World Champion. We appreciate the history, but it should be admitted and emphasised – nothing has been done for development of strongmen sport in the course of this period. During all years that the Strongmen Games have been taking place in Ukraine, no tournament for young athletes was organised. That’s why, when Mikhaylo Starov and Vasyl Virastyuk completed their performances, there was not enough number of athletes on the bench who were able to replace the champions adequately. Therefore, when the future sport does not have any perspectives it is necessary to solve problems on our own.

The situation with tournaments for professional athletes is not a whit better: during two recent years, the Ukrainian Federation (UFSA) organised only one all-Ukrainian contest (The Strongman of the Year) and the only international contest (The Most Powerful Nation of the Earth) in a year. One can also remember the Arnold Classic Challenge that was carried out two times. In all other cases, the UFSA gave its title to the tournaments that were organised by the strongmen themselves and required that they have to pay fees. In the course of all these years, the strongmen themselves have been building their training process and, while preparing for rare and unsystematized contests, have not the least confidence in the future. We spent almost all our financial savings to maintain proper physical form, but they threw us a sop offering one or two tournaments. A systematic contest calendar was not even discussed.

 

 

We act openly and declare that we want independently to build our future, choose our leaders and require from them reports on completed work, which is absent in principal in the federation where all key positions are occupied by one family members.

The 'Professional League  Strongmens of Ukraine' does not seek to begin its activities with conflicts, but warns the UFSA against acts that may put obstacles in the way of our establishment as such cases already took place during independent strongmen’s tournaments. We know how to behave in these situations, so we advise the UFSA to take care of organization of their own tournaments first of all, but not to try to harm us. All members of our association came to us of their own free will, they were not enticed, all of them were led by one principle – to perform as many times as possible, to compete fairly in tournaments with transparent conditions for the participants and liabilities of contest organisers to them.

To avoid any turns around and misunderstandings we declare once again:

We represent ourselves, we are not members of any other federations and we do not authorise anybody to speak on our behalf. We are entitled to negotiate with potential co-organisers and partners of contests. We are open to contact with honest people and seek to keep strongmen sport in our country and high international reputation of Ukraine which won the title the Strongest Nation of the Planet four times, and Vasyl Virastyuk, the captain of the team, became the Strongest Man of the World two times.

Strongmens of Ukraine:

Vasyl Virastyuk

Oleksandr Pekanov

Viktor Yurchenko

Volodymyr Muravlyov

Oleksandr Lashin

Sergyi Konyushok

Oleksyi Solovyov

Kyryllo Chuprynin