Crystal Lake strongman Quint Zambon wins world title

Newly crowned world champion strongman Quint Zambon continues to shock the world, and not only because he can hoist a 200-pound-plus log over his head at an age when, for many men, placing a log on a fire is enough of a workout.

At 5-foot-6 and about 190 pounds, the 45-year-old looks like he might have played nose tackle or wrestled in his younger years.

He did not.

He played ... soccer.

Which is a kick, considering his muscular physique. Dropped jaws typically follow when people learn of Zambon’s past athletic life.

“It tends to shock people,” said Zambon, who played soccer and baseball at Crystal Lake Central (Class of 1998), and then sped up and down sidelines as an 155-pound outside midfielder at Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne.

Zambon, who lives in Crystal Lake and has been a strength coach at Forge Fitness for about 10 years, competed in the inaugural Arnold Master’s Strongman Championship recently in Columbus, Ohio.

On March 2, he walked away as a world champ after taking first place in the men’s age 40-plus 198-pound weight class. It was the first time the championship featured a masters category (age 40 and older).

Zambon tied for first in the slater max log, lifting 255 pounds, won the tap bar dead lift with eight reps and placed third in the rogue yoke down and back by carrying 650 pounds on his broad shoulders for 15.99 seconds.

Zambon won the 2020 U.S. Strongman national championship and finished second at the world championships four times. By his count, he also took third at least twice and had several other top-five finishes. In 2015, he set a world record in the log press in the lightweight division.

His reaction to winning his first world championship?

Shocked.

“I thought my window for the world title had closed,” Zambon said. “It’s a pretty cool feeling, even with all that I’ve accomplished. And [achieving it] on the biggest stage makes it so much sweeter.”

If you would have told Zambon about 12 years ago that one day he would be a world champion strongman, he probably would have been, well, stunned.

He competed in his first Arnold Strongman Championship about 2013, driving to Kentucky with his girlfriend, not knowing anyone there. He competed against mostly 200-pound men, even though he weighed only about 175 pounds and finished third or fourth place, he said.

“I loved it, the whole competition,” Zambon said. “I was addicted immediately.”

After the contest, Willie Wessels, who was then part owner of what was the Strongman Corporation, which was the only sanctioned competition at the time, pulled Zambon aside.

“He said, ‘If you’re serious about this, you could be a competitive lightweight strongman at the highest level. Your grip strength is terrible, but other than that, you’re pretty good, this being your first show,’ ” Zambon said.

Zambon had long been a fan of the strongman competitions. He had watched it on TV when he was a kid and “thought it was cool,” he said.

After his college soccer days in Fort Wayne, where he already had started to bulk up, gaining 20 pounds of muscle by the time he graduated, Zambon began training athletes.

“I worked only with high school and college athletes,” Zambon said. “I liked the strongman movements as strength builders for athletes, so I incorporated a lot of this stuff into my training with them, not necessarily the heavy weights. My goal was always to get as strong as I could, even before I competed. I wasn’t into the body-building side of things, but eventually the athletes who I trained talked me in to doing my first contest.”

Years later, Zambon still has Wessels to thank for his belief in his potential. Today, Wessels is president/owner of United States Strongman, an organization that provides opportunities for athletes to compete in strongman events.

“If he never had talked to me, who knows if I would have gotten into it,” Zambon said. “I wouldn’t have known if I was good or not.”

In September, Indiana will host a competition that will serve as a qualifier for the Official Strongman Games, which will have a masters division for the first time.

“Odds are, that’s going to be my next show,” Zambon said. “I’m not done yet. Every couple of years I tell myself I’m going to step away, but I can’t.”

Who’s shocked? Raising the bar, after all, is what a strongman does.