Geoff Capes signed 10 x 8 colour photo

He was brought up in Holbeach, one of nine children, and went to the local secondary school, George Farmer's. He became a member of Holbeach Athletic Club where he was coached by Stuart Storey. After school he worked as a coalman and an agricultural labourer, being able to load twenty tons of potatoes in twenty minutes. He joined Cambridgeshire Constabulary in 1970, and remained in the police for ten years. He represented his country many times over 11 years, winning two Commonwealth Games and two Indoor European Championship titles, and put the shot 21.68 metres (71 ft. 3.5 in.) to gain the British and Commonwealth record. He is probably Britain's best-known shot-putter. Geoff Capes is also the most capped British male athlete of all time, receiving 67 International caps, and returning 35 wins. Capes turned professional in 1980 and went on to win five World Highland Games titles and other British and European contests. His positive image continued to grow with his outstanding performances in the World's Strongest Man competition. He was particularly known for his incredible hand and arm strength, easily tearing London phone books in half and bending rolled steel bars measuring over 1 inch in diameter and three feet in length into pretzel shapes. A persistent story about Capes is that in 1979, he stood in for friend and fellow strongman David Prowse to play the part of Darth Vader in several scenes during filming of The Empire Strikes Back while Prowse was recovering from an elbow injury. However, during an interview on BBC Radio Cleveland on 31 January 2007, Capes was asked about this and he stated for the record that this never actually happened. After retiring from strength athletics in 1987, Capes continued his involvement in the sport by training young athletes and acting as a referee at strength competitions in the UK. He now also breeds certain types of budgies. World's Strongest Man results 1980 - 3rd - 1981 - 2nd - 1982 - 4th 1983 - 1st - 1984 - 3rd - 1985 - 1st - 1986 - 2nd