William Moor-Znamensky

William Moor-Znamensky, born Alexander Vladimirovich Znamensky in Moscow in 1877, was a Russian professional circus athlete, weight lifter and belt wrestler. His family moved to St. Petersburg in 1894, where at seventeen he took up physical exercise under the guidance of Dr. V. F. Krayevsky, and by 1895 he was performing strength acts in the circus ring, including carrying a piano and a live horse on his shoulders. He adopted a foreign sounding stage name, as many Russian strongmen of the day did, and in 1897 he set a world record in the two hand jerk with a 158 kilogram barbell, later raising his marks to 155 and 154 kilogram weights in 1901. In wrestling he drew with several opponents, was defeated by the peasant wrestler Pronya in Kozlov, and in 1901 was named champion of the Baltic provinces at the Riga international competitions. He left the arena in 1917 after a knee injury and later worked as an assistant police chief in Moscow.