George Tromaras “left”

THE George Tromaras won many battles in the ring around the globe. In his last battle he fought, but did not emerge victorious. George Tromaras passed away at the age of 75. He had suffered multiple strokes and his heart could not bear it.

He was married and his son, Costas, follows in his father’s footsteps in the sport of dynamic triathlon. THE funeral will perform the Thursday (27/1) at 12 noon in Zoodochou Pigi at Paiania Square.

George L. Tromaras was a Greek wrestler and strongman. He was born in 1947 in Agia Sofia, a small village near Lake Trichonida. His childhood, as he had said, was difficult, but his love for the sport quickly established him as the new Greek Hercules. From a very young age he showed his inclination to wrestling and muscular strength.

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

In 1960, at the age of 11, he started freestyle wrestling with teacher Stamatis Harissiadis (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 Egaleo and that is why he was one of the pioneers in private gyms. This was followed by gyms in Omonia, Deligiorgi and Keramikou, in Pasalimani and Woman Style in Piraeus. After that he opened the Health Club in Franzi, Neos Kosmos and Patision. The latter is located in Peania.

In the two years 1968-1970, next to Jim Armau, he began the first achievements of muscle strength, with whom he had a common teacher in wrestling.

Sometime in 1970-74, together with Nikiforos Loizos, he organized Mr. Hellas, in the program of which he included Dynamic Triathlon competitions, inspired by a documentary with the American bodybuilder Sergio Oliva training with these movements. Although many initially devalued it, he and Costas Karabalis supported it with passion.

He has been characterized as the modern Hercules, as apart from being a champion, he also achieved things that are humanly impossible. Some of these are the bending of heavy irons, the breaking of thick chains, the immobilization of cars in motion, the opening of springs over 400 kg with the teeth, and even the pulling of trains.

In 1980, on the show “Unbelievable and yet true”, he pulled 4 train carriages, a fact that caused a worldwide impression.

In 1990 in Arabia he pulled a 35-ton truck with his teeth in order to advertise a wrestling match that took place the next day against an opponent who was over 2.40m.

In 2000 in Pyrgos, Ilia, he pulled with his teeth 2 train wagons with a total weight of 28 tons. At the time, he was preparing to pull 5 wagons and write in the Guinness Book of World Records, which he failed to do due to a key injury during a muscle strength program at school.

Since 1991, with the permission of the Ministry of Education and Religions, he has been presenting muscle strength programs in primary and secondary education. He had presented programs to elementary, high school and high school students all over Greece, always aiming at the moral lesson.

Apart from the sports element, his demonstrations were also didactic, because he passed messages to fight the scourge of drugs, urging children to play sports and cultivate their morals through the sporting ideal. Repeatedly in front of young children, he always stressed “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, about religion, about his family. As he has said “faith is the A and the Z”.

He maintained a large number of athletes in his gyms, of whom he was considered a model and example of inspiration for their integration into sports.

In 1996, when he stopped the professional fight, he focused more on muscle achievements. He traveled all over Greece at least 10 times with an assembled arena, from the last village of Thrace, Ormenio to the end of Crete, Zakros.

He has participated in many films of Greek production, but also abroad. He had played with Charles Aznavour, Susanna York, Claudia Cardinale as well as the protagonists of the series Bold and Charming. In Greek productions he had collaborated with Thanasis Vengos, Antonis Papadopoulos, Nikos Papanastasiou, Giorgos Fountas, Nikos Rizos and many others. Films in which he had participated: Thanasis in the land of Sfaliara (1976), Trap in Greece (1982), Papasouzas phantom (1983), The bastards (1984), Others prefer him to a sip (1986), The return of the bastards (2003) .

He had given interviews to many TV shows such as “Three in the Air” with Semina Digeni, in “Kyriakatika” with Konstantaras and Akrita (there he pulled 10 cars with his teeth), in Costas Venetsanto at YENED, in “Very Sunday” with Arnaoutoglou, in Mikroutsikos “Smiling is contagious”, in “Time Machine” with Christos Vassilopoulos, in ET3 with Nikos Aslanidis, in the show “Scenarios”, in “Vradi” with Petros Costopoulos, in ERT with Costas Hardavela, Natasa Rayou, Stefanidou and many more.

Famous personalities he met in his life were the actors Roger Moore, Claudia Cardinale, politicians such as Indy Amin Dada, the President of the Republic of Africa Kenneth Kauda, ​​the King of Jordan Hussein, sheikhs and others.

With the late Olympic wrestler Thanasis Kampaflis, Ziou Zitsou, Judo and Karate taught in the gendarmerie, the navy and the special forces.

His manager in the wrestling competitions was the late international wrestler Andreas Lampakis, who was presented in the leaflets of the time as his “iron-headed” lifeguard.

George Tromaras was the successor of the popular heroes Koutalianos and Sampson and the last popular hero. He had complained about it, saying “I want to see even ten young people with a penchant for wrestling and muscular abilities, so that they can find successors”, as well as that “if I stop what I do, it will disappear completely” .

At the same time, he had expressed his complaint about the indifference shown by the state towards the specific sport, in the sport in general, but also in itself. Although the state did not even provide him with medical care, he did not stop doing what he had loved so much and that made people love him.