Unit 1: Going to Extremes

**UNIT 1** **Going to Extremes** 1\. Jeffrey Tillman, age nine, has a new favorite sport: World's Strongest Man. "It's totally awesome. They carry cars and stuff," he explains. Men like Žydrūnas Savickas from Lithuania and Brian Shaw from the United States inspire Jeffrey every day. These do-or-di...

**UNIT 1** **Going to Extremes** 1\. Jeffrey Tillman, age nine, has a new favorite sport: World's Strongest Man. "It's totally awesome. They carry cars and stuff," he explains. Men like Žydrūnas Savickas from Lithuania and Brian Shaw from the United States inspire Jeffrey every day. These do-or-die athletes are the winners of the 2012 and 2013 World's Strongest Man championships. 2\. In World's Strongest Man, accomplished athletes come from around the world. They focus their efforts on five extreme events. All of the events require super human strength. The events change every year, but they require the willingness to carry huge rocks, lift tree trunks, and even run with a refrigerator under each arm. One of the most impressive challenges involves pulling an airplane from one end of a road to another. 3\. "It's a great competition," says Tomas Kaminski, a Polish fan of the sport. "To win, you have to be strong, fast, and have great concentration." These days, strength events are quickly winning fans around the world. But some people are starting to worry about the extreme sport's need for daring and risk. 4\. The case of American competitor Jesse Marunde showed the enormous danger of going to extremes. Marunde achieved second place in the 2005 World's Strongest Man championship. Two years later, an unthinkable event happened. Marunde died of complications of a heart attack. Some doctors think Marunde's death may have possibly resulted from steroid use. They think it is too easy for the sport to become an obsession for athletes. 5\. "There is so much pressure to become stronger," says Dr. Amir Bachchan, a professor of health policy at New York University. "They become obsessed with winning, and this leads to injury and sometimes steroid abuse." Bachchan hopes that athletes realize the dangers of taking the sport too far. "They need to understand there is more to lose than there is to win." 1 tree trunk: the body of a tree, with no leaves and branches 2 steroids: illegal drugs that increase muscle strength but cause health problems