John Gamble

John Gamble is a former world champion Powerlifter and strongman competitor from Richmond, Virginia. Collegiate career Gamble played linebacker at Hampton University and was a first-team Black College All-America selection. He also earned All-Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association honors in football and in track and field. Weightlifting and strongman career World-renowned in the fields of powerlifting and strongman competition, Gamble was the top ranked powerlifter in the world in the 275-pound class from 1981 to 1983. His personal records for total pounds in three lifts while competing in the United States Powerlifting Federation was 2,270 pounds, and he has personal bests of full squat, 892 lb; bench press, 573 lb; and dead lift, 826.5 lb in those three lifts. Gamble was inducted into the U.S. Weightlifting Hall of Fame in York, Pennsylvania, in June 1999. He competed twice in the final of the World's Strongest Man competition. In the 1982 World's Strongest Man he finished 3rd behind compatriot Bill Kazmaier at Magic Mountain, California and at the 1983 World's Strongest Man he placed 5th in a competition won by Geoff Capes in Christchurch, New Zealand.