Capes was born in 1949 in Holbeach, Lincolnshire, the seventh of nine children, and being a youngster grew to become a member of Holbeach Athletic Club, where by he was coached by Olympic hurdler Stuart Storey, and represented his county in basketball, soccer and cross-place.
Following his school times, he trod a unique path to athletic success that commenced with manual work. The physical demands of his early operate being a coalman ended up a prelude into the toughness-targeted things to do that might headline in his future.
"On behalf of all at England Athletics, we would want to share our deepest condolences with all of Geoff's household, pals and supporters, of which there were lots of around the globe. His effect on not just the throwing globe but the broader observe and area family was astounding, and his existence are going to be considerably missed.
His qualifications in athletics meant that he was no stranger to education with intensity and self-discipline, traits that translated properly into this new chapter of his profession.
“I used to be getting to be Tired of the program teaching. Athletics was no more the pleasurable it were. Global politics aided destroy the Olympic Online games in 1980 and it had been all receiving way too really serious,” he claimed. He still left the police that same yr.
He also appreciated fantastic success at the ecu Indoor Championships all through the 1970s, boasting two shot put golds, a few silvers and also a bronze to go along with an out of doors bronze in 1974.
This milestone did not make him complacent; as an alternative, it fueled his ambition. Next this acquire, the newly crowned champion catapulted himself headfirst into rigorous education for forthcoming competitions. The victories to adhere to in capturing range and energy athletics only bolstered his legacy.
Colin Bryce, a former Strongman and tv commentator for the earth’s Strongest Gentleman Competitors, mentioned of Capes in an interview, “When you observed him sprint, you recognized just what an Certainly terrifying athlete he was, as in terrifyingly excellent. He wasn’t simply a massive lump.”[6]
“Don't just was Geoff a two-time World’s Strongest Guy along with a record-breaking shot putter, but he was also a giant in heart and spirit. He paved the click here best way for athletes like me, exhibiting that British grit and perseverance could conquer the earth.
Consenting to those systems will permit us to course of action facts for instance searching behaviour or distinctive IDs on This website. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, might adversely impact particular attributes and functions.
But bigger competitions appeared over and above his attain – he managed only bronze at the 1974 European Championships. And he was controversially banned within the 1978 European Championships for failing to Exhibit the right numbers on his shirt.
He was often caned and on one particular situation, for misbehaving in a very lesson, a Trainer twisted his ear until it bled. That same afternoon Capes’s mother went to the school and punched The person. “She laid him out!” Capes recalled cheerfully.
His legacy lives on in the many lives he touched, equally on the field and over and above, and in the Recollections of a nation that won't ever neglect The person who was, fairly basically, bigger than lifetime.
British Olympic four hundred metres bronze medallist Katharine Merry, in the post on X, wrote: “So unhappy to listen to the news that Geoff Capes passed absent this morning in Lincoln aged seventy five. A shot put gold medalist and Planet’s Strongest person on more than one situation.