The story of Richard Sandrak stirred the world a few decades ago, after he was called “the strongest man on the planet” due to the weights he lifted in relation to his body weight. A documentary called The World’s Strongest Boy made him headlines in 2004, where he was seen on stages in Las Vegas, showing off his muscles like “Mr. World”. He displayed powerful abs, the body stretches of a karate master, was said to have less than 1 percent body fat, while swinging a weight that was three times his body weight. And all this at the age of only eight!
The documentary was disturbing. Although it aired in the UK when Richard was 12 and starting to look less weird, it included images that suggested child abuse. He was an anatomical freak show. It was impossible to watch him without wondering the agony the little boy went through to become a mini Schwarzenegger.
This is what he looked like then
Medical experts claimed that such muscular development required levels of testosterone that simply did not exist in a boy under the age of 10. They speculated that he must have been given steroids, which Sandrak’s mother vehemently denied. They talked about training regimes of six or seven hours, and it was revealed that the child did not attend school but was “educated at home”. In the background, his father, Pavel, looks like the hand pulling the strings, wickedly.
Richard and his parents, who originally came from Ukraine, tried to make money off the boy. Pavel tried to market a fitness supplement. Richard’s trainer and manager, Frank Giardina, then fell out with Pavel. Giardina suspected that Pavel’s unorthodox parenting bordered on the criminal, and in response Pavel, according to Giardina, threatened to kill him.
Not long after that, Pavel was imprisoned for beating his wife, leaving her with a broken hand and nose. Richard was the one who called the police – and asked them not to use the siren upon their arrival, fearing how his father would react.
Since then Richard has been trying to maintain a standard lifestyle. He continued to train, but very lightly. His body dimensions have changed. Diet regime is over. The father was released from prison but was under psychiatric supervision.
Sandrak insisted that “I was never forced to train or do anything against my will, my parents were training all the time and I wanted to join. It was mostly my choice. It’s just what I was raised to do. I was never forced. It was never a problem.”
But he admitted there were problems. His father made him sleep on the floor to maintain perfect posture. Sandrak claims it’s “no big deal”, but knows it’s unusual. He was not allowed to socialize with other children until the age of 10.
And this is how it looks today
“Today I set myself on fire for a living”
In a recent film about him, it was revealed: “He was never allowed to eat what everyone around him was eating because of the special diet that was imposed on him… He could only eat vegetables, fruits and lean meat… If he was hungry between meals, he was allowed to eat a head of lettuce. Pavel, his father, He would forbid him to eat, while he was throwing pizza in front of him.”
Today he is 30 years old. “I no longer lift weights, it mostly bores me,” he said recently, “I am very proud of my past, it is not something I hide from people, but I just don’t want to be stuck in it.” According to him, “Now my dream is to study quantum physics, or to be an engineer at NASA.”