George Tromaras

George L. Tromaras (30 June 1950 – 24 January 2022) was a Greek wrestler and strongman, known throughout Greece as the “modern Hercules”.

 

The early years

He was born in Agia Sofia, a small village near Lake Trichonida. As he himself said, his childhood was difficult. His love of the sport, however, soon brought him recognition as the new Greek Hercules. He was married and the father of Kostas, who is following in his footsteps in the sport.

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From a very young age, he showed an aptitude for wrestling and feats of strength. In 1957, he lifted a young donkey, imitating Dimitris Konstantinou, an athlete who had given a strength demonstration in his village. In 1960, he began freestyle wrestling under Stamatis Harisiadis, known as “Grandpa”, a prominent coach of the time, when wrestling and football were the most popular sports.

 

The gyms

In 1968, he opened his first gym in Aigaleo, becoming one of the pioneers of private gyms in Greece. More gyms followed in Omonia, at Deligiorgi and Keramikou streets, in Pasalimani, and Woman Style in Piraeus, followed by the Health Clubs on Frantzi Street, in Neos Kosmos and on Patision Street. His last gym is in Paiania and continues to operate.

 

Many athletes trained at his gyms, and for them he was a role model and a source of inspiration.

 

Feats of strength and powerlifting

Between 1968 and 1970, he performed his first feats of strength alongside Jim Armaou, with whom he shared the same wrestling teacher.

 

Around 1970–1974, he organised Mr Hellas together with Nikiforos Loizos. He included powerlifting competitions in the programme, inspired by a documentary showing the American bodybuilder Sergio Oliva training with these movements. Many initially dismissed it, but he and Kostas Karabalis supported it passionately.

 

The modern Hercules

Besides being a leading wrestler, he accomplished things that seemed humanly impossible: he bent thick iron bars, broke heavy chains, stopped moving cars, stretched springs with resistance exceeding 400 kilograms using his teeth, and even pulled trains.

• 1980: On the television programme “Unbelievable but True”, he pulled 4 train carriages, astonishing audiences around the world.

• 1990: In Arabia, he pulled a 35-tonne truck with his teeth to promote the following day’s wrestling match, in which he faced an opponent more than 2.40 metres tall.

• 2000: In Pyrgos, Ilia, he pulled 2 train carriages weighing a total of 28 tonnes with his teeth. He was preparing to pull 5 carriages and enter the Guinness Book of Records, but this did not happen because of a collarbone injury sustained during a strength demonstration at a school.

 

In 1996, he retired from professional wrestling and focused more on feats of strength. With a portable arena, he toured Greece at least ten times, from Ormenio, the last village in Thrace, to Zakros, at the far end of Crete.

 

He also taught jiu-jitsu, judo and karate to the Gendarmerie, the Navy and the Special Forces, together with the late Olympic wrestling champion Thanasis Kambaflis. His manager for wrestling matches was the late international wrestler Andreas Lambakis, whom publications of the time described as his “iron-headed” lookalike.

 

In schools

From 1991, with permission from the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs, he gave strength demonstrations in primary and secondary education, for primary, junior high and senior high school pupils throughout Greece. His demonstrations always had an educational purpose: he encouraged children to take part in sport and develop their character through sporting ideals, and warned them about the “scourge of the century”, drugs. He often repeated: “Stay away from cigarettes and harmful substances, and above all from the scourge of the century, drugs.”

 

In every performance and interview, he spoke about faith, religion and family. As he would say, “Faith is the Alpha and the Omega.”

 

Cinema and television

He appeared in many Greek and foreign films. Abroad, he acted alongside Charles Aznavour, Susannah York and Claudia Cardinale, as well as stars of “The Bold and the Beautiful”. In Greek productions, he worked with Thanasis Vengos, Antonis Papadopoulos, Nikos Papanastasiou, Giorgos Fountas, Nikos Rizos and many others.

 

Films: O Thanasis sti hora tis sfaliaras (1976), Pagida stin Ellada (1982), Papasouzas Fantomas (1983), Ta katharmata (1984), Alles ton protimoun gouli (1986), I epistrofi ton katharmaton (2003).

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He gave interviews on many television programmes, including “Treis ston aera” with Semina Digeni, “Kyriakatika” with Konstantaras and Akrita (where he pulled 10 cars with his teeth), Kostas Venetsanos’s programme on YENED, “Poly tin Kyriaki” with Arnaoutoglou, “Hamogelate, einai metadotiko” with Mikroutsikos, “I Michani tou Chronou” with Christos Vasilopoulos, ET3 with Nikos Aslanidis, “Senaria”, “Vrady” with Petros Kostopoulos, ERT with Kostas Hardavellas, and the programmes of Natasa Ragiou and Stefanidou.

 

During his life, he met personalities such as the actors Roger Moore and Claudia Cardinale, and political leaders such as Idi Amin, Zambia’s President Kenneth Kaunda and King Hussein of Jordan, as well as sheikhs.

 

The last folk hero

He is regarded as the successor to the folk heroes Koutalianos and Sampson, and as the last folk hero. His regret was that he saw no successors: “I want to see even ten young people with an aptitude for wrestling and feats of strength, so that there will be people to carry on,” he said, adding that “if I stop doing what I do, it will disappear altogether”. He also complained about the state’s indifference towards wrestling, sport in general and himself. Although it did not even provide him with medical care, he never stopped doing what he loved so much and what had made people love him.

 

More details can be found in his autobiography, “George Tromaras: 50 Years, the Story of His Life” (Eptalofos Publications).