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George L. Tromaras (June 30, 1950 - January 24, 2022) was Greek wrestler and strongman. He was born in 1947 in Agia Sofia, a small village near Lake Trichonida. His childhood, as he himself had said, was difficult, but his love for the sport quickly made him the new Greek Hercules. He was married and has a son, Kostas, who follows in his father's footsteps in sports. From a very young age he showed his propensity for wrestling and muscular strength.

In 1957 at the age of 9 he lifted a donkey, imitating Dimitris Konstantinou, an athlete who introduced a muscle strength program in his village.

 

In 1960, at the age of 11, he started freestyle wrestling under the teacher Stamatis Harisiadis (the so-called "grandfather"), an important coach of the time. The most popular sports then were wrestling and football.

 

In 1968 he opened the first gym in Aegaleo and for that reason he was one of the pioneers in private gyms. This was followed by gyms in Omonia, Deligiorgi and Keramikou and "Woman Style" in Pasalimani - Piraeus. After that he opened the Health Club in Frantzis, in Neos Kosmos and in Patisia. The last one, which it still maintains, is in Paiania.

 

In 1968-1970 next to Jim Armaou he began his first feats of muscle strength program, with whom he shared a wrestling teacher.

 

Somewhere in 1970-74, together with Nikiforos Loizos, he organized Mr. Hellas, in whose program he included powerlifting competitions, inspired by a documentary with the American bodybuilder Sergio Oliva, working out with these lifts. Although many discredited it at first, he along with Costas Karabalis passionately supported it.

 

He was characterized as the modern Hercules, as in addition to being a pro-wrestler, he also achieved things that were humanly impossible. Some of these are bending thick ironwork, breaking thick chains, stopping moving cars, opening springs over 400kg with the teeth, and even pulling trains.

 

In 1980 on the show "Unbelievable and yet true" he pulled 4 train cars, which caused a worldwide sensation.

 

In 1990 in Arabia he pulled a 35-tonne truck with his teeth to promote a wrestling match he was taking part in the next day against an opponent over 2.40m tall.

 

In 2000, at Pyrgos Ilias - Greece, he pulled with his teeth 2 train wagons with a total weight of 40 tons. At the time he was preparing to pull 5 wagons and enter the Guinness Book of Records, which he was unable to do due to an injury to his collarbone during a muscle strength program he presented at a school.

 

Since 1991, with the permission of the Ministry of Education and Religion of Greece, he has been presenting muscle strength programs in primary and secondary education.  He had presented programs to elementary, middle and high school students throughout the Greece, always with more of a moral lesson. Apart from the sporting element, his demonstrations also have an educational character, because he sends messages to fight the scourge of drugs, urging children to play sports and cultivate their morals through the sporting ideal. Repeatedly when appearing before young children, he always emphasized "away from cigarettes and harmful substances and above all from the scourge of the century, drugs." In each of his programs and interviews, he did not fail to talk about his faith, religion, and family. As he had said "faith is A and Z".

 

In his gyms, he maintained a number of athletes, of whom he himself was considered a role model and an example of inspiration for their inclusion in sports.

 

In 1996 when he stopped professional wrestling, he focused more on muscular achievements. With an assembled arena he toured the whole of Greece at least 10 times, from the last village of Thrace, Ormenio to the tip of Crete, Zakros.

 

He has participated in many Greek and foreign films. He has acted with Charles Aznavour, Suzanne York, Claudia Cardinale as well as the protagonists of the series "Bold and the Beautiful". In Greek productions he has collaborated with Thanasis Veggos, Antonis Papadopoulos, Nikos Papanastasiou, George Foundas, Nikos Rizos and many others. Films in which he has participated: Thanasis in the country of Sfaliara (1976), Trap in Greece (1982), Papasouza's ghost (1983), The bastards (1984), Others prefer the drink (1986), The return of the scoundrels (2003) .

 

He had given an interview on many television shows such as "Three in the air" with Semina Digeni, on "Kyriakatika" with Konstandara and Akrita (there he pulled 10 cars with his teeth), to Kostas Venezando on YENED, on "Poly on Kyriaki" with Arnautoglou, on Mikroutsikos "Smile is contagious", on "Time Machine" with Christos Vassilopoulos, on ET3 with Nikos Aslanidis, on the show "Scenaria", on "Vrady" with Petros Kostopoulos, on ERT with Kostas Hardavela, Natasha Rayou, Stefanidou and many more.

 

Famous personalities he met in his life were the actors Roger Moore, Claudia Cardinale, politicians such as Indi Amin Dada, the President of the Republic of Africa Kenneth Kaunda, the King of Jordan Hussein, sheikhs, etc.

 

With the late  Olympic wrestler Thanasis Kampaflis taught Jiu Jitsu, Judo and Karate to the gendarmerie, navy and special forces.

 

His manager in the wrestling matches was the late international wrestler Andreas Lampakis, whom the tabloids of the time presented as his "iron-headed" savior.

 

Giorgos Tromaras was the successor of the folk heroes Koutalianos and Samsons, while he was the last folk hero. He had expressed his complaint about this, saying "I want to see even ten young people bent on wrestling and muscle skills so that they can be continued", as well as that "if I stop what I'm doing, it will die out completely". At the same time, he had expressed his complaint regarding the indifference shown by the state towards this specific sport, towards sports in general, but also towards him. Even though the state did not even provide him with medical care, he did not stop doing what he loved so much and made people love him.

 

Details in the autobiography of "Giorgos Tromaras, 50 years, the story of his life" published by Eptalofos publications.

© Konstantinos Tromaras
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