Ken Patera

Ken Patera, born Kenneth Wayne Patera on 6 November 1942, is an American former Olympic weightlifter, strongman competitor and professional wrestler. He came from a Czech-American family of athletes, attended Cleveland High School in Portland, Oregon, and competed in track and field weight events at Brigham Young University before turning to Olympic weightlifting. He won several medals at the 1971 Pan American Games, including gold in the weightlifting total, finished second at the 1971 World Weightlifting Championships behind Vasily Alekseyev, and won four consecutive United States super heavyweight titles from 1969 to 1972. He was the first American to clean and jerk more than 500 pounds. At the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich he failed to total and did not medal. He then became a professional wrestler, and in 1977 he took third place at the inaugural World's Strongest Man contest. As a wrestler he held the WWF Intercontinental Championship in 1980, winning it from Pat Patterson, and worked for the American Wrestling Association and many other promotions.