Amateur and Pro Strongmen and Women throughout the country will gather to compete and to honor legendary pro strongman Jesse Marunde of Sequim, WA who passed away on July 25, 2007. Jesse was featured regularly on ESPN’s World Strongest Man. He placed 2nd at the 2005 World’s Strongest Man in Chengdu, China and had qualified for this year World Strongest Man in Anaheim, California in September. Jesse was well known in Idaho and often would display his incredible feats of strength to audiences at local competitions and at the annual Boise Fitness Expo. Jesse was not only a tremendous competitor but also a tremendous human being that donated great amounts of time to help people.
According to promoter Jay Hagadorn, Jesse was a great man, not because he was a great athlete, but because he loved people. He had great respect and love for his family. Jesse’s passing was a great loss to the strongman community. Jesse was a gentle giant and he taught us that strongmen not only display their strength on the competition field but through service and helping of others.
30 Athletes in 1 minute silence for Jesse before the Battle of Vikings competition in Norway. They used two stop-watches to measure the time correctly in a true strongman tribute to Jesse.
Jesse’s dedication as a father was summed up in the following article:
