Geoffrey Lewis Capes JP (23 August 1949 – 23 October 2024) was a British shot putter, strongman, and Highland Games competitor.

[3] Following retirement from competitive sport, he continued to be involved in strength athletics as a referee, event promoter, and coach.

[7] His father was a land worker, while his mother, who stood six feet tall and weighed 250 pounds, was a matron at a care home.

Lacking the means to buy proper clothes, Capes attended events wearing garments left behind by his mother's patients after they died.

[6] His first attempt at competitive shot-putting ended with him placing second-to-last in the finals of the 1964 All England Schools Athletics Championships.

In addition he was a decent sprinter, running 23.7 s for the 200 m.[3][9] Growing up on the Lincolnshire fens he had an early fascination with the natural world and cared for injured birds and animals from when he was a young boy.

[11] Capes was a shot putter and represented his country over a span of 11 years, winning two Commonwealth Games and two Indoor European Championship titles.

[14] 1980 was the year Capes threw the longest distance of his career, 21.68 metres (71 ft 2 in) in Cwmbran on 18 May 1980[13] being a new Commonwealth and British record.

However, he eventually placed fifth, the winner being Vladimir Kiselyov whose Olympic record of 21.35 metres (70 ft 1 in)[15] was well short of what Capes had achieved prior to the Games.

[17] He was particularly known for his incredible hand and arm strength, easily tearing London telephone directories in half and bending rolled steel bars measuring over 1 inch in diameter, and three feet in length.

Bill went on to the 1979 World's Strongest Man, the first Briton to compete in this tournament, whilst Capes concentrated on his athletic career.

Capes won the truck pull and weight over bar and came second in farmer's walk, bale hoist and sack load events.

Capes' did not forget to celebrate after the end of the final event, the loading race saying "The King has not lost his crown!".

[6] 1987 Pure Strength featured Bill Kazmaier, Jón Páll Sigmarsson and Geoff Capes[19] and was held at Huntly Castle in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

Strong performances in the first few rounds belied his condition but he eventually pulled out during the log-lift and ended the contest in third place.

His popularity extended to children's games and television, with the World’s Strongest Man competition becoming a Christmas Day staple.

He was a favorite of Queen Elizabeth II, who "howled in laughter" when her glove stuck to his sweaty hands after he won the Braemar Games in 1982.

Former strongman and commentator Colin Bryce remarked compared Cape's unparalleled fame in Britain to that of an NFL star in the United States, describing him as "a true household name.”[6] Capes' daily diet reportedly included seven pints of milk, two loaves of bread, a dozen eggs, two steaks, a jar of baked beans, two cans of sardines, a pound of butter, and a leg of lamb.

[6] Capes competed at many Highland Games gatherings in Scotland and across the world and became a hugely popular and respected figure.

[5] He held the record for shot put at Cowal Highland Gathering − Scotland's only international heavy athletics competition − since 1980 at 18.50 metres (60 ft 8 in).

Capes also helped promote the Daily Star funded UK Strongest Man tournaments until the turn of the millennium.

Outside his sporting career Capes was for a long time a policeman and prior to that was a member of the Air Training Corps.

Prior to his athletic retirement he had been awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal in 1977, for services to the community.

[9] At the height of his fame in 1985, the game Geoff Capes Strongman was released on the Amstrad CPC, the ZX Spectrum, the BBC Micro, the Acorn Electron and the Commodore 64, featuring a truck pulling and tug-of-war, allowing control of each muscle group.

[23] He appeared on Blue Peter where he lost a challenge from Welsh strongman/showman George Davies (Strang the Strong, Georgie Muscles).

Aside from sport and television appearances, Capes was famed for breeding budgerigars and had success (a former world champion[9]) on the show bench with his Recessive Pieds.