Ed Coan
Chicago, IL
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Ed Coan is widely regarded as the greatest powerlifter in the sport's history, having set more than 70 world records across his career and remaining the only lifter to hold world records in the squat, bench press, and deadlift simultaneously across multiple different weight classes. His pound-for-pound total, the combined weight lifted across all three competitive lifts relative to his own body weight, remains the statistical benchmark against which subsequent powerlifters across every weight class are measured, reflecting an unusual combination of relative and absolute strength. Coan's sustained dominance across more than two decades of competition, continuing to set world records well into his forties, established a level of career longevity in a sport that places extreme physical demands on the body that few competitors have matched. His combination of record-setting absolute strength and his unmatched pound-for-pound relative strength across an unusually long competitive career has made Coan the powerlifter most universally cited as the greatest in the sport's history.
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- Top 6 Powerlifters of All Time
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