 Between 1959 and 1963 he won all the competitions he participated in, with a major success at the Rome 1960 Summer Olympics where he set three world records and became the first man to clean and jerk more than 200 kg (202.5).He was proclaimed the best sportsmen of the 1960 Olympics and the "Strongest Man on the Planet".He was considered a nerdish intellectual in rim glasses, going against the stereotypes attached to weightlifting.